I've noticed that Google Chrome has a very subtle lens flare effect for inactive tabs. Just hover over a non-active tab and look very closely at the mouse pointer. Also Microsoft's new Fluent Design introduced something similar (Fluent Reveal Effect).
Here is an example for what I mean, also the lens is a bit too bright in this case: https://i.imgur.com/6dQ6iOS.gif
In my opinion it can help to mitigate a boring grayish hover, but the effect must be very subtle, so the user doesn't notice.
Great design resource
100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People (Voices That Matter) Submitted March 01, 2019 at 04:07AM by hrnsn123 https://ift.tt/2SAgKx0