Toggle is a button or switch that can be flipped to alternate between two states, options, or settings. It’s used widely in technology, computing, programming, and communications to provide a way for users to change their experiences with an application or website.
Generally, toggles should be used sparingly and with caution. They are often confusing for users and can introduce cognitive overload. They should only be deployed as necessary to solve a specific problem. They should also be confined to as small a scope as possible so they don’t create a confusing mess for the rest of the codebase. Finally, they should be rolled out slowly and incrementally through a canary release or feature flag service so that if the feature doesn’t perform well it can be easily rolled back.
The first thing to consider when designing a toggle is its physical appearance. It should be a clear and obvious switch that communicates its current state through color and movement. In addition, the toggle should be labeled clearly to indicate what it does when it’s on and what happens when it’s off. Using a high-contrast color for the switch is a good choice to help users differentiate its state, but care should be taken with the societal and cultural implications of choosing red as the on position (it’s counterintuitive for many people who associate it with stop signs and stop lights). Providing state descriptors—the words On and Off—next to the toggle is another useful tool to make sure that the meaning of each state is immediately clear to your audience.
Another important consideration when designing a toggle is its accessibility. Many developers who use toggles don’t consider that their users may need assistance in activating them or understanding their current state. For example, many toggle switches do not have accessible names or descriptions. Moreover, they are often rendered inaccessible for screen readers and other assistive technologies.
Name your toggles well. Give them meaningful names that someone who has never seen the toggle before will be able to understand what it does and why you created it. This information can save time for the person who needs to manage the toggle in a future maintenance or bugfixing effort.
Don’t let your codebase fill up with unused toggles. Prune them as soon as they’re no longer needed and create a process in your team to vet whether a toggle is an appropriate solution to a problem. This will minimize the overhead of maintaining a large inventory of toggles that may be inactive for long periods of time. It will also reduce the risk of accidentally reactivating one that can cause bugs or breakages in the system. For this reason, it’s important to create a workflow for creating and managing toggles. Ideally, you can implement the toggles through your CI/CD pipeline. This will automate the management of the toggles and allow your team to focus on the core product. If you’re interested in learning more about leveraging TOGGLE at your company, request a demo.
