Understanding the Tooltip Widget in Flutter: Enhancing User Experience

A versatile tool for providing informative context in Flutter apps

22 June, 2023

Contributors

Hasnain Makada

@hasnainmakada-99

Introduction

In the world of app development, providing users with clear and concise information is key to a great user experience. One powerful tool that helps achieve this goal in Flutter is the Tooltip widget. With its ability to display contextual messages when the user interacts with specific elements, the Tooltip widget is a valuable addition to any Flutter developer's toolkit. In this blog post, we will explore the Tooltip widget's functionality, demonstrate how to use it effectively and discuss best practices for integrating tooltips into your Flutter apps.

What is the Tooltip Widget?

The Tooltip widget in Flutter allows you to display informative messages when the user interacts with a particular widget. These messages can provide additional context, explanations, or helpful tips, enhancing the overall user experience. The Tooltip widget is highly versatile, providing support for both touch-based devices (through long-press events) and desktop applications (through hover events).

How to Use the Tooltip Widget

Implementing a Basic Tooltip

To add a tooltip to a widget in Flutter, simply wrap the desired widget with the Tooltip widget and provide a tooltip message as the message parameter. For example, consider an ElevatedButton that requires additional explanation:

import 'dart:async';
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:liquid_swipe/liquid_swipe.dart';

void main() {
  runApp(const MyApp());
}

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  const MyApp({super.key});

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      title: 'ToolTip Widget Demo',
      debugShowCheckedModeBanner: false,
      home: ToolTipDemo(),
    );
  }
}

class ToolTipDemo extends StatefulWidget {
  const ToolTipDemo({super.key});

  @override
  State<ToolTipDemo> createState() => _ToolTipDemoState();
}

class _ToolTipDemoState extends State<ToolTipDemo> {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      appBar: AppBar(
        title: Text('ToolTip Widget Demo'),
      ),
      body: Center(
        child: Tooltip(
          decoration: BoxDecoration(
            color: Colors.red,
            borderRadius: BorderRadius.circular(8.0),
          ),
          message: "Tap To Submit",
          child: ElevatedButton(
            onPressed: () {
              // Your Logic
            },
            child: Text('Click here'),
          ),
        ),
      ),
    );
  }
}

Customizing the Tooltip

The Tooltip widget offers various options for customization. You can adjust the background color, text style, and even provide a custom widget as the tooltip content. For example, to customize the background color of a tooltip, you can use the decoration property:

decoration: BoxDecoration(
            color: Colors.red,
            borderRadius: BorderRadius.circular(8.0),
),

Handling Long-Press and Hover Events

By default, tooltips are triggered when the user performs a long-press gesture on touch-based devices or hovers over the widget on desktop applications. The Tooltip widget handles these events automatically. However, you can customize the delay before the tooltip appears using the waitDuration property. Similarly, you can adjust the delay before the tooltip disappears using the showDuration property.

Best Practices for Using Tooltips

Keep tooltips concise and relevant to the widget's purpose to avoid overwhelming the user with excessive information.
Ensure that tooltips are accessible by providing alternative ways to access the information they convey. For instance, tooltips for touch-based devices should have an equivalent action available for users who may not be able to perform long-press gestures.
Test tooltips on different screen sizes and orientations to ensure they do not obstruct the user's interaction with the app's content.

Output

Here's the output of the ToolTip widget when rendered inside your Flutter apps 👇

Conclusion

The Tooltip widget in Flutter offers an effective way to provide context and guidance to users in a concise and unobtrusive manner. By integrating tooltips into your app's user interface, you can enhance the user experience and help users understand the functionality of various interactive elements. Remember to customize tooltips to match your app's design and consider best practices to ensure they are accessible and helpful.

Additional Resources

Flutter API documentation for Tooltip: https://api.flutter.dev/flutter/material/Tooltip-class.html
Flutter Widgets catalogue: https://flutter.dev/docs/development/ui/widgets

fluttertooltipwidget

tooltipwidgetinflutter

flutterappdevelopment