
Another problem with hover states: buttons are invisible until you hover over them. People can’t click on buttons they can’t see!
For example, here, they put most-used actions directly over each email. Presumably that should help you sort your mail faster, processing some letters without even opening them.
The problem is these buttons are invisible. You see an email that you already know what to do with, but you don’t see the button to do it! First, you have to hover, then locate where the button appears, and only then move again to click it. So it doesn’t help as much as you’d think.
Is it worth the visual noise and flickering that it produces? For me—no.









