Toggle UI Component Design

Togle is a simple user interface component that can make a big impact on the experience of your users. It helps them update preferences, settings, and other types of information without requiring them to click Save or Confirm.

Toggle Labels: Clear And Direct

A toggle label should describe what the control will do when it’s on. The label should be short and direct, and it should only include a small number of words.

Color is an important visual signifier for toggles; use a high-contrast color to signal on or off. In addition, state descriptors can help convey what the system is currently doing.

Toggle Switches: Immediate Results

When a toggle switch is active, it should immediately deliver the state change. If a switch takes time to process the state change, it may result in user frustration.

It should take no longer than a few seconds to change the state of a toggle. If this is not possible, use a processing status loop animation to quickly transition between states.

Toggle Configuration: Dynamic And Static

Many organizations have moved their toggle configuration management to some sort of centralized store, often an existing application DB. This allows system operators, testers and product managers to easily view toggle configuration and to make changes using an admin UI.

However, while static configuration is preferable, there are cases where a more dynamic approach is required, such as Ops Toggles or Experiment Toggles. In these cases it’s a good idea to expose an endpoint that allows dynamic in-memory re-configuration of feature flags, so that a toggle configuration can be changed in the runtime as the toggle is tested.