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Short Answer:
Quite a late answer, but I'm surprised no one here pointed this out before -- it is possible for a toggle switch to show its current state and the state to which it will change simply by having text outside the button, instead of on it.
Long Answer:
As dotancohen points out:
The problem is that in English "on" and "off" are both adverbs ...
115
Here:
You are creating a search-filter? Just add an option that means you don't care about this filter option.
male | female | doesn't matter
Other names:
Any
Either
Everyone
N/A (Not Applicable)
I like "any" the most.
The OP expressed (in the comments on this answer) the worry that this solution would force the user to make extra clicks. However, as ...
89
The important thing is not so much which direction is right, but that you make it visually clear which direction is 'on'. This can be done by lighting up an LED, by an icon on the display, changing colors, etc. It just needs to be very clear what state the machine is and that this button will toggle the state. This is how single direction switches (buttons) ...
81
If I understood correctly the premises of the question, what the user should decide is:
If the user wants to consider (filter by) one of the following options
If the answer to 1 is Yes, then choose one of the options
The possible outcomes are:
Option A
Option B
Not applicable
Original proposal: [demo]
Considering you are using toggle buttons, for the ...
79
It appears to be dependent on country or region, as Wikpedia states in the article Light Switch:
Up or down
The direction which represents "on" also varies by country. In the USA and Canada and Mexico and the rest of North America, it is usual for the "on" position of a toggle switch to be "up", whereas in many other countries such as the UK, Ireland,...
62
History
The Caps lock key origins are in the Shift lock key found on old mechanical typewriters.
An early innovation with these typewriters was the introduction of a second character per type bar - the metal stamper hitting against the ink ribbon. The shift key practically shifted the whole type apparatus so it is the second set (capital set for letter ...
58
Whatever you decide - please don't do what twitter does.
48
Simple answer, the law states that they must be off per default.
Privacy by default:
https://www.ics.ie/news/what-is-privacy-by-design-a-default
Accept all/reject all buttons are a nice touch, go ahead and use that!
46
This is one of the first designs of a vertically-mounted electric switch:
It was presumably designed this way to afford an in-built failsafe: it requires physical effort to close ("turn on") by overcoming gravity, which will otherwise open the circuit.
EDIT: At least in the US, electrical codes (see National Electrical Code paragraph 404.6 - 404.7) still ...
46
This has been discussed in much depth in many other related questions (see right pane on this page). So I'll make it brief.
Toggle switches are anti-usability
Despite their relative popularity (eg, Apple use them as a standard interface control) toggle switches have an inherent state-action ambiguity; that is, it is unclear whether the label ('on' for ...
35
The problem is that in English "on" and "off" are both adverbs and adjectives. Therefore, find replacement words that are either verbs or adjectives to label the buttons with:
Enable / Disable
Enabled / Disabled
Start / Stop
Running / Stopped
Very late edit: See this terrific switch that a coworker of mine designed, which succeeds in keeping the "on/...
31
This has to do with binary numeral systeem. 1 for on, 0 for off. This way it's understandable for everyone around the world, since not everyone understands English (ON/OFF).
It's also readable from 2 sides, where ON/OFF is harder to read.
28
What you're searching for is "both", "any" or "all" (in case you add more gender categories).
All - Female - Male
So that makes it clear that results from both (or all) genders will be included. And this way the user has to choose one of the three toggle, possibly "All" would be selected by default.
25
A reasonable compromise would be to have the button not highlighted (have a neutral background color perhaps) when it is on the off state, and highlight it (change background color) when it is in the on state.
For example, looking at this screenshot of the Spotify (web)app, do you think shuffle is on or off?
24
I think the major issue is having a single colour for action buttons and nothing explicitly indicating status. Colour is a very strong visual indicator and is more likely to be linked to status than a call to action.
The toggle button is definitely ambiguous. You could use an Apple-style slider
download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq ...
21
As the most highly voted answer is simply false I am writing this answer just clarify the legalities in the EU.
Under GDPR there are 6 lawful bases for processing personal data. The two we care about are
consent
legitimate interest
Consent
Consent is something that is opt-in and allows a company to process personal data in nearly limitless ways. To ...
20
There's already 18 answers here so this might be late to the party, but it makes sense to use checkboxes in such situations. Some examples:
And when selected:
This is similar to the "dim / lit" approach that Facebook's "Like" uses, but is combined with a checkbox for better visibility. In any case, the key point is to use only one word (or set of words) ...
20
I'd stop just short of "don't use them."
I'd suggest toggle buttons are acceptable in the case where there is a clear on and off state. This can occur, for instance, when you have a line of grayed buttons that become colored when you click them.
This is the reason Play/Pause works in many cases. The play button is not so much a toggle between two states as ...
16
Sadly I don't have research material but some real world examples which uses the top/bottom direction.
I have found an interesting post and a manual about switches in cockpits of airplanes.
Boeing manual
F16 switches
16
A toggle button usually makes the most sense when you have a number of buttons to choose between. Something like a set of radio buttons in interaction.
Otherwise, one toggle button on its own isn't clear in terms of either interaction or affordance, and the other options are better choices.
15
Given your list Ctrl + B, Ctrl + U, Ctrl + I, to be consistent, if you want to convert the selected text to Upper / Lower case you should be using the Ctrl key (you also of course have Ctrl + C and Ctrl + X).
I've seen this done using the Ctrl key in text editors, e.g. Notepad++ (as there is no underline) it is Ctrl + U for lowercase and Ctrl + Shift + U ...
15
Just use the style is recommended on Material design | Components– Selection controls | Switch
13
The wording "delete mode" is not so user-friendly, pretty technical, just by reading it without seeing your explanation, I really didn't know what it is.
Do you have any other operations other than "delete" that could be applied to one or multiple pictures? If you do, you should have a "select items" button, and it will get into a mode where you select ...
12
I have been using Toggle Button to "Add" and "Remove" elements to a collection using simple Toggle Button (one with state visible at a time) which had following states.
ADD (if button wasn't clicked ever)
REMOVE (if the button was previously clicked and an item was now part of the collection)
BUT this always pinched me as for a novice user (age 50+), it ...
12
Radio buttons are actually the most accurate (requirements match standard behavior) control for this. Just make larger, custom radio buttons that are easier touch targets. Remember to allow the label to also act as a touch target for the radio button.
Toggle buttons are not the right control, because the user does not have the power to use them as intended.....
12
Well, it kind of depends on which system you are.
There are mobile guidelines for Android, iOS and Windows.
iOS, for example, doesn't use regular checkboxes (they are not called tickbox btw) or radio buttons but only grouped lists of elements (scroll down to "table view") or switches.
But from what I've learned, you use all of those controls like this:
...
12
How about adding a Third Radio button for the Third state?
12
In many situations, context is really really important, and it may be sensible to look at a consistent way to do all filters, and not just the male/ female one. As the question states:
The form of which this is a part is used to filter a large list of people by certain conditions.
What are the other "conditions" and how do these match up? Do they include ...
11
If safety is a concern - make sure gravity deactivates the switch.
This kind of switch is designed to never be activated by accident.
11
I think you're referring to toggle switches here. That being said,
Radio buttons let users select one option from two or more choices whereas a toggle switch mimics a physical switch that allows users to turn things on or off.
You can also refer to these UX guidelines by Microsoft on when to use which control:
Guidelines for toggle switch control
...
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