What Is a Toggle?

Togle is a simple user interface component that provides quick access to toggles and other settings. It should be used only when it makes sense to do so and be consistent with the rest of your interface design.

Toggles are an important visual signifier and it’s critical to use a high-contrast color for the On state. In addition, make sure the switch looks like a slider and is visually dynamic. This ensures the user has an easy time distinguishing between the two states.

When using toggles, be aware of societal and cultural implications for your audience. For example, some people associate toggle switches with stop signs and others with lights.

Using toggles on your website or app can be confusing to users. Providing direct labels, standard visual design, and immediate results can help users understand what is happening when a toggle switch is on or off.

For this reason, toggles should be labeled with on and off rather than neutral or ambiguous language. Ideally, the toggle’s position should change as users change its state — just as a real-world switch would do.

Toggle configuration is often managed by static files, but this can become very difficult to maintain once the number of toggles grows. The best way to manage toggle configuration is to move it into some type of centralized storage, usually a database.

Managing Feature Toggles can be challenging for a team, particularly at a large scale. Savvy teams view Feature Toggles in their codebase as inventory and seek to keep them as low as possible by removing them when they no longer need to be there.