When designing tooltips and popovers, your goal should always be to support users without distracting or overwhelming them. Several best practices help ensure that these floating UI elements are truly helpful.

First, pay close attention to timing: tooltips should appear quickly when a user hovers or focuses on a target, but not so fast that accidental triggers become annoying. Similarly, tooltips should disappear promptly when no longer needed, but not so abruptly that users cannot read them.

Placement is another key factor. Tooltips and popovers must be positioned close to their target elements, never covering important content or obscuring what the user is trying to interact with. Tippy.js allows you to fine-tune placement to avoid these common pitfalls.

Content length is critical for usability. Keep tooltip and popover content concise and highly relevant to the context. Avoid long paragraphs, unnecessary details, or unrelated information. A short, direct message is much easier to scan and understand, especially for users navigating quickly.

Common UX pitfalls to avoid include:

• Using tooltips for vital information that should be visible by default;
• Triggering tooltips in ways that interfere with normal mouse or keyboard use;
• Placing tooltips so far from their targets that users lose the connection between the two.

Always test your tooltips and popovers across devices and input methods to ensure they enhance, rather than hinder, your interface.