Toggle is an element of user interface (UI) design that allows users to change between two states or options. It is often used to control features that have mutually exclusive behaviors, such as turning a feature on or off. Toggles are found in many everyday technology devices and software applications. The term toggle is similar to the more general term switch, although toggles can have a specific physical application as well.
In software development, toggles allow dev teams to release features even as they are still in the process of writing the code that implements them. This supports newer agile approaches to software development, which can save time by allowing you to avoid having to put newly requested features into code branches that undergo a long testing and QA process before they’re ready for release.
Toggles are also commonly used for responsive design in web development, allowing developers to hide or reveal different elements of a page based on screen size and device type. This can help them better adapt to their customers’ needs, while still maintaining a consistent overall look and feel across all devices.
There are some best practices to follow when using toggles in a production environment. First, be sure that your toggles have clear and direct labels. This will make them easier to understand for both current and potential future users. Ideally, the label should directly describe what will happen when the toggle is active or inactive. In addition, toggles should be positioned consistently in a way that is intuitive for the user. For example, if you’re using toggles to make certain parts of an article visible or invisible to visitors, be sure that those toggles are located in the same place in the navigation bar each time.
Another thing to consider when using toggles is the color of the toggle button. A good rule of thumb is to use high contrast colors for toggle buttons, as this helps users clearly identify their status. Additionally, it’s important to evaluate the societal and cultural implications of your choice of toggle colors, as some colors may be interpreted differently by different populations.
Lastly, be sure to clean up your toggles regularly. This will reduce the number of idle toggles in your codebase and improve your software’s performance. Every time a toggle is clicked, it will require a database call to determine its current state. This can add up to thousands or even millions of database calls for a toggle that rarely changes its state.
Having too many idle toggles in your production code can negatively impact your software’s read performance. To avoid this, try to keep the inventory of your toggles as low as possible and have a process in place to prune them as soon as their lifespan runs out. This can be done by adding toggle removal tasks to your team’s backlog or building a process into your management tools. This will reduce the burden of managing idle toggles on your development and operations teams.
