A toggle is a control that allows users to update preferences, settings, and other types of information. When used properly, toggles help users make informed choices between two opposing states. When designing toggles, be sure to provide clear labels and standard visual design to avoid confusion. Also, avoid using toggles in places where they can create cognitive load or be mistaken for other controls (e.g. radio buttons or checkboxes).
Toggle is a word that means “switch or alternate,” and it’s apt to describe the way you move between screens when video chatting with two friends at once. However, in web design and user interfaces, toggles typically refer to the ability to hide sections or items. In most cases, a toggle is an element that can be made visible or invisible via a click. If a toggle is clicked, it’s turned on; if it’s not, it’s turned off. Toggle-based navigational elements can appear on forms, in lists, or even within full pages of content.
A popular use of toggles is in multivariate or A/B testing, where one version of a product can be sent to some users while another goes down a different path. A toggle is often used to enable these test paths, allowing you to see which of them perform better with your users.
When used for test purposes, a toggle is configured by a set of configuration parameters that are stored in static files. Managing these files and ensuring consistency across multiple servers becomes cumbersome at scale, so savvy teams tend to implement some form of admin UI or API which allows system operators, testers and product managers to view, modify, and delete toggle configurations.
Many designers add colors to toggles in an effort to make them more visually distinctive. While this is a good idea, it’s important to evaluate societal and cultural implications of your choice of color. Choosing red for the toggle’s on state, for example, can violate user expectations and send the wrong message to certain audiences.
It’s important to consider how your toggle will be interpreted by users when creating it, especially if you use the toggle in conjunction with other visual cues, like an accordion or dropdown menu. For example, if you have a toggle switch next to an arrow that indicates the visibility of content in a table, users may mistake the arrow for a button they should press.
Additionally, it’s worth noting that toggles should only be applied as a control when the effect can be delivered immediately without any saving or submission action from the user. In other cases, it’s more appropriate to use radio buttons or checkboxes. In particular, if you want to present yes/no or multiple-choice options, these should be used instead of toggles. This will ensure that the user’s actions will be clearly and consistently understood, and prevent them from being confused with other controls. If you’re using toggles for a multivariate experiment, be sure to include a clear label that explicitly states which side of the toggle is active.
