MOUSE ROLLOVER...Opinions please...

[Arif110]

Hi there,

So – what do people think? With regard either to a website’s main menu – or other buttons and portals to other places – what is the verdict on the importance or otherwise of mouse rollover? I.e. the button responds and ‘does’ something (e.g. changes colour or shade) when the mouse pointer hovers above it.

I’ve seen some quite big-name websites – where they haven’t bothered with this – and relied on the relevant objects to look obviously enough like a button – and the fact that the pointer will always turn into a hand when you’ve placed it near a ‘button’.

Is it naff? Essential? A good touch? Not really important?

Opinions and feelings please!


Thanks in advance,


Arif

[kiwisr]

Depends a lot on the design. Simple candy bar button at the top of a page are obvious and don't really need have rollovers, but on some sites it isn't completely obvious that you could click on some text to go somewhere else.

[Extra 300 Driver]

I am a total newbee but I managed to do this last night

www.iawa-online.com

Let me know what you think. If its naff I will remove it. (took me ages making the images in PS)

[Pigeon]

It should be obvious that a clickable item is clickable just from looking at the page without having to do anything with the mouse.

[Davi]

Pigeon said:

It should be obvious that a clickable item is clickable just from looking at the page without having to do anything with the mouse.

that is true, but IMO it can also help the feckless if when they roll over a button it shows them that it's going to do something before they do it - not great having to design for the lowest common denominator I know, but it doesn't have to be a gaudy roll over, a subtle change of hue is more than sufficient.

[joewilliams]

Disclaimer: I'm an engineer, not a graphics artist.

I normally do a simple CSS background colour change - doesn't involve messing with images, and makes maintenance much easier.

It's important to have different states for 'hover' and 'active'. Extra300Driver - the buttons on your site appear depressed when hovered over, which makes it look as if they've been selected.

You can see one of my sites in my profile. It's not a top-class site by any means, but it's how I do it

[Extra 300 Driver]

joewilliams said:

It's important to have different states for 'hover' and 'active'. Extra300Driver - the buttons on your site appear depressed when hovered over, which makes it look as if they've been selected.

You can see one of my sites in my profile. It's not a top-class site by any means, but it's how I do it

Thats tonights work taken care of!

[onomatopoeia]

Arif110 said:

Is it naff? Essential? A good touch? Not really important?

Naff. Clickable links should be identifiable by looking at them, i.e. by underlining.

[shadowninja]

Pigeon said:

It should be obvious that a clickable item is clickable just from looking at the page without having to do anything with the mouse.

Yep. I hate visiting a site to discover the designer deigned to make it a wonderland of discovery and awe. Just give me the f**king information I visited for! Or I'll visit a rival site.

Edited by shadowninja on Monday 12th November 17:11