A toggle is a switch with two positions, on or off. It’s commonly used in technology, computing, and programming to provide users with a way to change between different settings or options. For example, the caps lock and num lock keys on keyboards are toggles. Toggles also appear in user interfaces, such as the options menu in many applications.
A great benefit of using toggles is that they allow you to validate features with a subset of your users before rolling them out to the entire audience. This allows your product team to experiment with new functionality and reduces the risk that a new feature will be a complete flop with its full rollout.
When used appropriately, toggles can help you increase productivity and improve the overall user experience. However, you must be careful not to use them to circumvent standard design practices or to make your interface look cluttered and confusing. For example, if you use a toggle to hide an article section or item, be sure it’s obvious that the user must click the eye icon again to reveal it.
Finally, it’s important to remember that feature toggles are temporary. Ideally, you should only create one toggle at a time for a limited amount of time, such as a few days or weeks. This will prevent you from creating a toggle that overlaps with other features and may cause bugs or errors. It’s also best to give each toggle a name that makes its current state clear, so if it does cause an error in production, someone on your team will have a clue as to how long the feature has been running and what it did to trigger that error.
