positionPlease

PositionPlease is a term used in user interface design and interaction design to denote a protocol or helper that prompts for or assigns a precise on-screen position for a UI element. It originated as a colloquial shorthand in prototyping workflows and is not a formal standard or widely adopted specification.

In practice, positionPlease refers to a mechanism that places elements such as tooltips, context menus, or popovers at a specified location relative to a target or within a defined region. Implementations typically involve coordinates or anchor references, plus constraints for alignment, margins, viewport boundaries, and potential fallbacks if the preferred position would cause overflow or overlap important content. The approach may include animation, collision handling, and accessibility considerations to ensure discoverability and readability.

Usage patterns commonly appear in design tooling and early-stage development, where teams prefer explicit control over placement during testing of flow, readability, and interaction order. A typical invocation may specify an element to position, a reference anchor, and options like offset, alignment, and collision avoidance. For example, a prototyping API might call positionPlease(element, anchor, {offset: 8, align: 'start'}) to render a tooltip near its trigger.

Reception and limitations: PositionPlease is not a formal standard and is primarily a pragmatic convention in informal design discussions. Its informal nature can lead to inconsistent usage across projects, and real-world implementations must address accessibility, performance, and responsive behavior to be production-ready. See also positioning systems, anchors, and contextual menus.