Toggle is a digital trade journal showcasing the vital role that technology plays across industries and the people who work to make it happen. We cover the full spectrum of tech, from the latest software to the hardware and systems that keep everything running smoothly.
The word toggle is derived from the 18th century definition: “a pin passed through the eye of a rope to fasten it.” Today, the term refers to a switch that goes on or off. It’s used to control everything from the lights in your home to the air traffic controllers who manage our nation’s skies.
In continuous development, feature toggles allow product teams to test a new product release with a small segment of their user base before a full rollout. This allows them to validate a new design or feature and reduces the risk that a feature will flop.
A popular use of toggles is for A/B testing. The A and B features are hidden behind a toggle, and when the team gets conclusive data they can remove the toggle and deploy the best version of the product.
Often, however, the use of toggles is not well thought out and can cause problems for users with disabilities. For example, many designers and developers use red and green to indicate the state of a toggle. These colors are incompatible with some color blindness conditions and can make the toggle hard to read for these users. It’s also important to keep an inventory of the toggles in your system and prune them when their lifecycle runs out.
