What to change
Ask your supplier to provide help that works with touch and keyboard as well as a pointer, staying available during ordinary reading and interaction.
A worked example
Illustrative example
A short explanation beside a form label stays available while the visitor moves over it and can be dismissed without changing the field answer.
Why this matters to your practice
Brief help should stay available long enough to read. If moving the pointer towards it makes it vanish, the design demands unnecessary precision. Ask your supplier to demonstrate the same help on a phone and with a keyboard. Essential instructions usually deserve a more dependable place than hover-only text. Where the explanation contains links or several sentences, a deliberately opened section may be easier to use and easier for the practice to maintain clearly.
A practical review example
A short hint beside a form question may vanish when the pointer moves towards its text. Ask the supplier to move slowly from the trigger into the hint, then try the same help on a phone and with a keyboard. If it contains a link, demonstrate reaching that link. Essential instructions should not depend on an elusive hover interaction. A longer explanation may belong in a deliberately opened section, giving the visitor a stable place to read before returning to the question.
How to check the result
Accept when the help is discoverable, readable and dismissible through the supported interaction routes without trapping focus.
A mistake to avoid
Packing essential instructions into hover-only help makes the form depend on an interaction many visitors cannot perform.
Turn reading into a next step
Your action checklist
Work through these checks with your team or supplier. Tick the ones you have resolved and leave unknowns open.
Record what you know, what is still missing and the answer you need from your team or supplier.
Use project decisions only, without personal, patient or confidential details. Entries stay in this page and are not submitted to Kay & Co. Copy or download before leaving; this page does not save your notes.
Further reading
These sources provide background for the topic. The practice examples and checklist are illustrative planning suggestions from Kay & Co.
Related guides
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