A toggle is a control that has two mutually exclusive states, “on” or “off”. Toggles are commonly used in technology, computing and programming to enable/disable settings, features or functions. Toggles are also used as part of responsive web design to control the display of navigation menus and sidebars based on screen size.
Typically, a toggle is designed to look like a slider and utilizes visual cues such as movement and color to help users understand its current state. Pro Tip: When creating a toggle it is important to consider the proximity principle whereby a user should be able to see the label associated with the toggle in close proximity to the control. This helps prevent confusion and reduces cognitive load. Toggle labels should be action oriented and describe what will happen when the toggle is activated.
Accessibility is a concern when using toggles as they can be confusing to users with low vision. To avoid this, designers often use colors to provide context, for example green indicating on and red indicating off. This is not a great approach as it violates WCAG guidelines that recommend against relying on color alone to convey meaning.
Savvy teams view the inventory of Feature Toggles in their codebase as having a carrying cost and seek to keep it as low as possible. To this end, they may adopt a process to ensure that idle toggles are regularly removed from the codebase by adding a task on their team backlog or building the process into the existing feature flag management system.
