Hover state
How something changes when your mouse pointer rests on it, signaling that it can be clicked.
What it is
A hover state is the visual change when a pointer moves over something: a button darkens, a row highlights, a card lifts slightly. It tells people "this is clickable" before they commit.
Hover is one of several interactive states: default, hover, pressed (active), focused (for keyboard users), and disabled. Polished apps design all of them.
Phones have no hover. Anything that only appears on hover, like a delete button on a row, needs another way to reach it on touch screens.
How to ask for it
“It's not obvious what you can click on.”
“Add hover states to all clickable elements: buttons darken by about 8%, table rows get a light grey background, and cards lift with a soft shadow. Add a visible focus ring for keyboard users too.”
The weak prompt names a feeling; "hover state" names the mechanism and the prompt defines it per element plus the keyboard equivalent.
You've seen this in
- GRows highlighting in Gmail as you move the mouse
- DCards lifting on Dribbble
- SButtons darkening on Stripe