To translate the outcome of each tool visually, a designer must first understand it, then bring it to life with illustrations and animations-all while keeping in mind that the simplest function of each tool is what gives tooltips their visual focus. One might assume these imaginative animations are easy to produce, but underneath their simplicity is a layer of complexity that unveils a tool’s value, motivates users to learn, and guides with a clear intent. Focus on the most basic function of the tool Through the lens of telling relatable visual stories, I help our users get started in our apps with these playful onboarding experiences there are some tricks to doing that well: focus on the most basic function of the tool, take inspiration from the everyday, use what you know, and follow a process that works for you. Invoked by holding the cursor over a tool in the toolbar, the utilitarian but playful visual metaphors are the building blocks, no matter someone’s experience level, for learning how to do things in the app.īut what exactly does designing and illustrating tooltips look like in practice? As designers our daily lives and our memories are represented everywhere-including in rich tooltips. In Adobe Illustrator these content-rich tips-the most straightforward application of the tool played out in short, fun, relatable animations-demonstrate an individual tool at its peak moment of shine within larger, implied workflows.

Tooltips that at one time simply revealed a tool’s label, are now textual and visual descriptors of how to apply them. At their best they’ve been welcome, useful… and even delightful.įor the past few years, Creative Cloud onboarding has been transforming how users learn to do things in our applications.

At their worst they’ve been obtrusive and annoying. Originally used in Microsoft applications to display tool functionality in the toolbar (remember Clippy?) tooltips, have taken on many different forms over the years.

Illustrator cracker