UserInfoCard: Add preference to display card on hover
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	kostajh
	Aug 17 2025, 8:38 AM

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	F65914939: image.png
	Aug 26 2025, 10:16 AM

	F65914943: image.png
	Aug 26 2025, 10:16 AM

	F65914679: image.png
	Aug 26 2025, 8:26 AM

	F65766394: Screenshot_2025-08-13_091040.jpg
	Aug 17 2025, 9:24 AM

	F65766389: Screenshot_2025-08-13_091040.jpg
	Aug 17 2025, 9:22 AM

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Description

Summary

Some users may prefer to see the user info card on hover, as it will declutter interfaces with many users listed. Show-on-hover can't be the default, because we want the feature to be usable on mobile and accessible to users navigating via keyboard, but it could be set via a preference for users who want this behavior.

Specification

A preference exists for "Show the user info card on hover (desktop only)"
When the preference is checked, the user info card button is not rendered on desktop. The card is opened via hovering over a user name.
When the preference is checked, the user info card button *does* display on mobile interfaces

Technical notes

...

Acceptance criteria

Users can open the user info card on hover, if a preference is set

Event Timeline

kostajh created this task.Aug 17 2025, 8:38 AM

Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptAug 17 2025, 8:38 AM

@Niharika @KColeman-WMF what do you think about this? I'm filing it in response to feedback from @DerHexer about clutter on some pages where large numbers of users are listed.

I'm not convinced about this proposal, because I think the icon can be very useful in quickly distinguishing temp, bot, blocked, privileged, suspicious, etc users, and I think opening on hover might also introduce problems with maintaining focus after the popover is opened.

So, I would probably vote against doing this, but I'm filing it anyway for us to consider and discuss.

Example screenshot:

Instead of a solution with hover, I was also thinking about a simple on/off button on the page instead of going back to settings, refreshing, etc.

Johannnes89 subscribed.Aug 17 2025, 10:01 AM

Dreamy_Jazz moved this task from Inbox to PM on the Trust and Safety Product Team board.Aug 18 2025, 8:16 AM

@DerHexer your screenshot did not come through for me. Maybe it's private?

https://phab.wmfusercontent.org/file/data/2xzxikcdtijzg5pqcm42/PHID-FILE-262xccl7jz7penrwjnvr/Screenshot_2025-08-13_091040.jpg

DerHexer attached a referenced file: F65766394: Screenshot_2025-08-13_091040.jpg. (Show Details)Aug 19 2025, 7:52 AM

@kostajh can we turn off the feature right from the page when the user clicks "Turn off this feature" on the card without taking them to Special:Preferences?

In T402103#11117893, @Niharika wrote:

@kostajh can we turn off the feature right from the page when the user clicks "Turn off this feature" on the card without taking them to Special:Preferences?

We could, but I would be hesitant to do that because it makes it more difficult to discover how to re-enable.

I would advise against opening on hover as the card contains links and a menu that we want users to be able to access, and a hover state will make navigating to these more fragile.

I do like Niharika's suggestion. We could add a description to the menu item or tooltip to help users understand where to re-enable it?

In T402103#11118387, @KColeman-WMF wrote:

I would advise against opening on hover as the card contains links and a menu that we want users to be able to access, and a hover state will make navigating to these more fragile.

I do like Niharika's suggestion. We could add a description to the menu item or tooltip to help users understand where to re-enable it?

AIUI, the original request is that some interfaces are cluttered, not that they want to be able to switch the feature off everywhere. So I think we might want the ability to:

quickly hide the icons on a given page (could be kind of weird from a UX point of view, though)
allow users to specify define pages where they don't want to see the icon (so, partial disabling via Special:Preferences)

OKryva-WMF edited projects, added: Product Safety and Integrity; removed: Trust and Safety Product Team.Oct 10 2025, 10:25 AM

OKryva-WMF added a project: PM.Oct 10 2025, 10:27 AM

OKryva-WMF moved this task from Inbox to Triaged (backlog) on the Product Safety and Integrity board.

UserInfoCard: Add preference to display card on hoverOpen, Needs TriagePublicActions