How to Design a Toggle

A toggle is a small piece of wood or plastic sewn to something such as a coat or bag and pushed through a loop or hole to fasten it. In computers and some other machines, a toggle is used to switch between two functions.

A software-based solution, Toggle is designed to provide “a comprehensive platform for the creation of rebar fabrication programs that can be used on both traditional and robot-automated welding systems,” according to a company statement. Toggle’s software is said to turn construction drawings into automated robotic manufacturing programs, making rebar assembly faster and safer.

As the number of toggles grows, managing them via static files becomes cumbersome. Modifying the configuration can become challenging at scale, and ensuring consistency across multiple servers is tricky as well. As such, many organizations choose to move toggle configuration into some type of centralized store, often an existing application DB. Typically this is accompanied by the build-out of some form of admin UI which allows system operators, testers and product managers to view and modify Features Flags and their associated toggle configuration.

While toggles are great for adjusting settings that users can choose between, they are not as good for adjusting yes/no choices like whether to enable cookies or not. This is because toggles don’t include text on/off, so the design has to rely on other visual cues. Unfortunately, those cues can cause confusion and cognitive load if not executed properly. The most important thing to remember when designing a toggle is that it should produce an immediate effect when clicked, without requiring additional save or submission actions from the user. Clear and descriptive labels should also be utilized to reduce cognitive load by clearly indicating the system state triggered when the toggle is switched on or off. Lastly, avoid using colors that have low contrast, or are counterintuitive in your audience’s cultural context (i.e. red for on).