What is an effective use of help tooltips?

Help tooltips serve as valuable aids in enhancing user experience, particularly for those who are new to a system or application. Their primary function is to provide context-sensitive assistance or guidance, allowing users to understand specific features or fields without overwhelming them with information.

When new users encounter unfamiliar terms or functionalities, tooltips can clarify these elements succinctly, helping users grasp how to interact with the system more effectively. This targeted assistance can lead to greater user satisfaction and reduce the learning curve associated with adopting new technologies.

The other options suggest using tooltips in ways that might not be effective: applying them to every label could lead to information overload, replacing all instructions could undermine the broader guidance new users need, and using them solely for decorative purposes would defeat their purpose of providing meaningful help.