Toggle is a user-interface component that helps people manage the state of something—whether it’s content or a view. Toggles typically have a pair of opposing states like on and off and use a different appearance to indicate each state.
Toggles should be used sparingly. They don’t always fit the needs of all sites or apps, especially those that are primarily text-based and where other components such as sliders may be more appropriate. When you do use toggles, be sure to make it clear to users what they are managing. Provide clear labels that describe what the toggle will affect, and consider how you can reinforce that message with other visual design elements.
If you use toggles to control access to your articles, it’s important that you evaluate the context carefully. For example, if you’re using toggles to restrict access to content for specific audience groups it might be more effective to use other types of controls such as an accordion. This way, your article can be more easily structured to accommodate your audience’s needs while still providing the features that you need to enable your business model.
When it comes to implementing a Toggle, there are many different styles that can be used and each platform has its own set of conventions. However, all platforms do share some common features such as the ability to provide a default appearance for the toggle’s on and off states as well as the option to supply an icon which indicates what state it is in. In addition, toggles on all platforms also support collapsible and hidden states.
Depending on the context, some toggles can be quite complex. To avoid confusing users, try to avoid having multiple different types of toggles on a page. This will help to reduce cognitive overload and make it easier for users to navigate your site or app.
Toggle switches should be updated to reflect the new state of a feature as soon as possible. This will ensure that people who have already started using a new version of your product do not experience unexpected changes when the feature is rolled out to more and more users. This should be done with care to ensure that any bugs or issues caused by changing the state of a toggle are not introduced in subsequent releases.
As the number of toggles grows it becomes increasingly difficult to manage their configuration via static files. To prevent a release from becoming a disaster due to accidental changes it’s recommended that you move the toggle configuration into some type of centralized store—typically an existing application DB—and build out a form of admin UI for system operators, testers and product managers. This approach can be slow and cumbersome when it comes to modifying toggle configuration but is usually preferable to the alternative of having to manually re-deploy code in order to change a feature flag at scale.
