A toggle is a control that has two opposing states, often signified by a different color (red for on, green for off). Toggles are commonly used in web applications to allow users to switch between light and dark themes or choose from a selection of predefined themes. They can also be used to provide users with additional options for formatting an article such as minimizing scrolling or adding a sidebar.
When creating a toggle it is important to keep the scope of the configuration small. A large set of features controlled by a single toggle can quickly become complex and difficult to manage. This can cause confusion for other teams working on the application and lead to bugs that are difficult to debug weeks or months later.
In many cases it is better to create a separate toggle for each feature you want to implement. This can simplify the configuration process and allow you to perform more extensive testing of individual components of your system. Using separate toggles can also help you to track the progress of your experiments.
One of the most common uses for toggles is to implement multivariate or A/B testing. Using an experiment toggle you can consistently send users down one or another codepath based upon their cohort in the system. Then you can monitor the aggregate behavior of each cohort to determine which path is more effective. Once you have conclusive data on which path is most effective you can remove the experiment toggle and make the preferred path live for all users.
