A toggle is a switch that has two positions — on and off. It’s the same concept you see on hardware keyboards like Caps Lock and Num Lock, and software options menus. Users can select a toggle to enable or disable functionality that they don’t want to use right now. When they’re ready to re-enable the feature, they simply flip the toggle back to its on position.
While toggles are often used to make it easier for developers to deploy new features, they can also be used as a design element in and of themselves. When they’re designed poorly they can confuse and derail user experiences. In this article we’ll explore the ways that designers and UX teams can use toggles in a more effective way, to improve their usability and create more meaningful interactions.
Toggle is a powerful tool, but it’s important to keep its use in the scope of a small number of features. It’s easy to let it grow out of control, creating a complex series of feature flags that can become a burden for the team and lead to bugs when they’re released.
Savvy teams view Feature Toggles as inventory that comes with a carrying cost. They seek to minimize that inventory by proactively managing the lifecycle of toggles. This is often accomplished by adding a toggle removal task to the team’s backlog or by building out some kind of feature flag expiration into the product.
