A hotspot is the lightest-weight way to tell a user that something new exists -- a pulsing signal that invites curiosity without demanding attention.

What is a hotspot?

A hotspot is a small, animated UI element, typically a pulsing dot or ring, placed directly on or adjacent to a product feature to draw passive attention to it. Unlike a tooltip or modal, a hotspot does not interrupt the user's workflow. It sits in the interface, visible but unobtrusive, until the user chooses to engage with it.

When a user interacts with a hotspot, clicking or hovering, it typically reveals a brief message: a one-sentence description of the feature, a prompt to try it, or a link to more context. The hotspot then disappears or is marked as seen, and the interaction is complete.

When to use a hotspot

Hotspots are most effective in two scenarios. The first is new feature announcements. When a capability that already-active users have not seen is added to the product, a hotspot placed on the new element signals its presence without forcing a tour or a modal that interrupts ongoing work.

The second is passive feature discovery during onboarding. For features that are not on the critical path to activation, a hotspot is a lower-friction alternative to a checklist item or a tour step. It puts the feature in the user's peripheral awareness without making them stop what they are doing to learn about it.

Hotspot vs. tooltip

The distinction matters for UX decisions. A tooltip delivers guidance reactively: it appears when a user hovers over an element they have already found. A hotspot is proactive: it draws the user's eye to something they have not noticed yet. Tooltips support users who are already engaged with a feature. Hotspots introduce features that might otherwise go undiscovered.

For feature discovery and adoption goals, hotspots and tooltips are complementary. A hotspot surfaces the feature. When the user engages with it, a brief in-app message provides the context needed to act.

Best practices for hotspot design

Hotspots lose their effectiveness when overused. A UI with multiple pulsing indicators simultaneously is visually noisy and signals that everything is important, which communicates the same thing as nothing being important. The general rule is one or two active hotspots at a time, placed only on features that genuinely warrant unprompted attention.

The message revealed on interaction should be short, specific, and action-oriented. 'This is the reporting dashboard' is not useful. 'See how your users are activating this week' gives the user a reason to click through. The goal of the hotspot interaction is to create enough interest to produce a behavior, not to deliver a documentation excerpt.

Hotspot visibility should be tied to user state. A hotspot for a feature that requires a prerequisite action should not appear until that action has been completed. Showing users a hotspot for a feature they cannot meaningfully use yet creates confusion rather than curiosity.