A toggle is a control that allows users to update preferences, settings, and other types of information. They can be used to hide content from view or make it visible again, and are commonly seen on websites and mobile applications. However, if not implemented correctly, toggles can cause usability issues that are difficult to resolve.
In order for a toggle to be effective, it must be easy to distinguish between active and inactive states. Since toggles don’t contain a text “on” or “off,” it is up to designers to use other visual cues to communicate the toggle’s status. However, picking the right visual cue is not as simple as it sounds, and many designs have been shown to fail in user testing.
One of the most common ways to indicate whether a toggle is active or inactive is to use a different color. While this approach works well on its own, it is also important to consider other visual cues, such as size or font-weight. For example, using a darker color to denote the active state can lead to confusion as some users may initially believe that the darkened toggle is the inactive one (the results of this study show that the incorrect assumption can double error rates on 5-second tests).
Another visual cue that has been shown to be effective is the use of an embossed icon. Embossment has been found to be particularly useful because it is immediately noticeable and increases the confidence score of the user. This effect is lost when the toggle icon is placed on top of other, competing visual cues such as a border or background.
Lastly, using a more saturated and pronounced color to indicate the active state has been proven to be effective. In fact, saturation is the most robust indicator for toggle states. This can be improved upon by adding additional cues such as an inverted color for the inactive state or a circle to indicate that a toggle is disabled.
It is essential to keep the inventory of feature toggles as low as possible in order to prevent them from overwhelming users with options and creating cognitive burden. Furthermore, it is important to have a process in place for pruning old toggles once they have been vetted and have reached the end of their lifecycle.
Toggles can be a powerful tool to support newer agile development methodologies by providing developers with the ability to hide features until they are ready for release and market testing. This is in contrast to more traditional waterfall development models where the team would write a new feature on a separate branch that would require a lengthy testing and quality assurance process before it could be merged into trunk code. With the help of feature toggles, these features can be hidden behind a flag until they are ready to be released. This can dramatically speed up the time to market for new user-requested functionality.
