A toggle is a switch that can be flipped on or off. It is a common design element in technology, computing, programming and communications to provide users with a way to control the state of settings, views or content. Toggle buttons usually use a visual cue to indicate their current state, such as a light or dark background color, or the toggle icon itself moving up or down.
It is important to understand how toggles work in order to make the most of them and to avoid mistakes that can harm user experience. Toggles are a great tool for changing the display of content or settings, but if used incorrectly they can be confusing and frustrating for the user. Toggle buttons have a unique set of design challenges that are different than checkboxes and radio buttons. For instance, toggles do not have the ability to display an on/off text label and therefore must rely on other visual clues like color and movement to communicate their state. This can be difficult for some users to understand, particularly when the toggle is not arranged in a standard way or has a lot of other elements around it.
The best practice for using toggles is to keep them small and simple. A toggle should not be so complex that it creates cognitive problems for the user or prevents them from making a decision. A good rule of thumb is to limit the number of toggles in an interface, and to limit them to those that affect the display of content or settings.
When creating a toggle, it is important to give it an understandable name that explains what it does. This will help if there are errors in the code, as the developer will know what toggle caused it. The name can also be useful to the user, as they will have a better understanding of what the toggle does and why it is causing issues.
Another good practice is to keep track of the inventory of toggles in the system and to prune them once they are no longer needed. This will keep the number of idle toggles low, which will improve performance and reduce management overhead. Toggle removal can be a good addition to a team’s sprint backlog or incorporated into the company’s feature flag management process.
The Visibility Toggle allows you to hide or show content in an article at a moment’s notice without having to edit the article. This feature is only available to Grandmaster subscribers and above. If you would like to add the toggle to your articles, click here to upgrade. Toggle content is not hidden from site search results or in article previews, but anyone who knows how to inspect the HTML of an article will be able to see the toggle in place. If you want to hide this content from everyone, use a subscriber group container instead.
