Bill Scott delves into the humble mouse-over in his post Musings on Mouse Hover. In it he identifies three main uses for mouse-over effects:

1. Hover invitation - using the hover to cue the user as to what is going to happen next
2. Hover zoom/focus - enabling the user to focus in on a particular area (usually with mapping tools)
3. Hover detail - using hover to show more information about an item (Netflix does this to great effect)

I particularly liked his conclusion:

Use hover to create a more lightweight but engaging way to cue the user to hidden functionality. Use it as a way to provide just-in-time details. Use it to keep your page visually simpler providing what is needed when they are most curious.

Update: fiftyfoureleven goes into the hover invitation effect in more detail and causes me to make a mental note to add this effect to all my online forms. It just makes sense.

Posted on: November 14, 2005 | No comments

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