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Should toggle button show its current state or the state to which it'll change? (2010)

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Re: Should toggle button show its current state or the state to which it'll change? (2010)

#271

Post by bee_rider »

83457 wrote: post #242
bee_rider wrote: post #55

RIP Checkbox, 1990-2009, you were perfect and unambiguous but for some reason smartphone designers hated you.

A medical video conference / telehealth system my provider uses has broken the checkbox. In their direct message interface they change the checkbox field label based on whether the box is checked. Unchecked has the label as "Not Urgent" and checked is "Urgent". On multiple occasions I have quickly checked the box, to indicated as not urgent, then clicked send.

At some point bad design becomes almost an art form

Re: Should toggle button show its current state or the state to which it'll change? (2010)

#272

Post by wolverine876 »

jodrellblank wrote: post #233
wolverine876 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people haven't even heard of binary.

Silicate chemistry is second nature to us geochemists, so it's easy to forget that the average person probably only knows the formulas for olivine and one or two feldspars. https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2501:_Average_Fam... See also this comment ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39344935 ) "it's pretty obvious" that computers use the opposite symbol than the name says.

Yes indeed. I need to explain to IT people that most users don't even understand hierarchical folder structures; many don't understand folders. They don't believe me.

[Edit: deleted possibly rude paragraph]

Re: Should toggle button show its current state or the state to which it'll change? (2010)

#273

Post by jodrellblank »

wolverine876 wrote: post #270
jodrellblank wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something other than muted; both your options are the same.

I see! Those were two 'screenshots' of the same setting, one in selected state and one in unselected state, following the example of a post upthread. They were not two different settings - yes, that would probably be poor UI design! I've seen worse.

Ohhh, I get it now, okay

Re: Should toggle button show its current state or the state to which it'll change? (2010)

#274

Post by BobaFloutist »

mywittyname wrote: post #163
fckgw wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're looking for literally any Hyundai, Kia, Toyota, Honda, Chevy or Mazda sedan. Hope this helps.

Automatic Emergency Braking and adaptive cruise are difficult features to avoid. The IIHS dings vehicle safety ratings if they do not have AEB. Because of that, even entry level vehicles like the Elantra have AEB. Almost every manufacture has committed AEB on their entire lineup.

Are you sure AEB is what they consider batshit insane? They didn't say they wanted no self-braking, just for it to be at most moderately insane, no?

Re: Should toggle button show its current state or the state to which it'll change? (2010)

#275

Post by low_tech_punk »

False dichotomy. Toggle buttons should show both and visually indicate the state by proximity cue.

But there is usability vs aesthetics trade off.

I think Microsoft design systems (seen in Windows, Edge, Office products) only shows the active state probably because it’s easier to align toggle buttons flush when text is only on one side. If you display texts on both sides, the unpredictable text length would make the button area difficult to align.

Re: Should toggle button show its current state or the state to which it'll change? (2010)

#276

Post by Nifty3929 »

Another issue with toggles is idempotency. If I click the button, there is always some lag and some chance that the underlying system state has not changed. I might want to click the button again to reinforce my desired change, but with a toggle there's not really a way to do that. If I click it again, the system would likely revert back to it's original undesired state.

Like when you want to copy something, but Ctrl-C is unreliable, so you Ctrl-C,C,C,C to make extra sure.

I want one button for each state, so that I can click it several times if required.

Re: Should toggle button show its current state or the state to which it'll change? (2010)

#277

Post by apapapa »

datavirtue wrote: post #263
apapapa wrote: post #114

I don't know how developers manage to make simple toggle switches confusing and it makes me scared of their code but sometimes I think it's done on purpose as a dark pattern (when you unsubscribe to spam for example)

Unsubscribe....lol Inbox rule: body:"unsubscribe" -> move to Delete.

That's a good one

Re: Should toggle button show its current state or the state to which it'll change? (2010)

#278

Post by emeril »

derekp7 wrote: post #6

This has been really frustrating to me lately with Microsoft Teams. If I'm in their app, the mute button is a microphone with a line through it (if mute is activated, i.e. if the mic is off). And the icon changes to a microphone without the slash over it to indicate that you are no longer muted. Makes sense. But if I join using the phone app on my phone, the same microphone with a line through it (that means you are…

I use teams all the time but only use the mobile app for audio since that's less crap than the desktop electron/etc. based apps

I recommend everyone to just the mobile app for audio since most people can't manage to get pc/windows audio working consistently and it's just works on most people's phones without issue

while I can certainly get it working fine on my pc, I have a nice bluetooth headset that is a pain to repair to my pc so I always just use the headset so I can walk anywhere and not be tethered to my pc (where bluetooth always seems unreliable in windows...)

Re: Should toggle button show its current state or the state to which it'll change? (2010)

#279

Post by deathanatos »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #68
derekp7 wrote: post #6

This has been really frustrating to me lately with Microsoft Teams. If I'm in their app, the mute button is a microphone with a line through it (if mute is activated, i.e. if the mic is off). And the icon changes to a microphone without the slash over it to indicate that you are no longer muted. Makes sense. But if I join using the phone app on my phone, the same microphone with a line through it (that means you are…

Discord is worse. Their buttons for mute-microphone and turn-off-camera are inverses of each other.

They are?

Whether the icon has a slash or not:

  Device is currently ->| On        |  Off
                  ------+-----------+------
                  Camera| unslashed | slashed
                     Mic| unslashed | slashed
The camera button is on a different row, and gets a background rect that the mic button doesn't, and turns green when on (vs. the red for the mic when off) … but I think that's sort of a mapping to the default Discord state & showing things that are "against normal expectations"…?

Re: Should toggle button show its current state or the state to which it'll change? (2010)

#280

Post by lamp_book »

rconti wrote: post #59

There are a number of ways to get this wrong. The shuffle button in Spotify on our Tesla is a grey color, and you have to wonder if it's dark ENOUGH a grey to indicate that it's on, or a light grey to indicate that it's off. So then you go to toggle it on and off to see the state change, but actually it's buggy so it doesn't do anything. When you finally get it to toggle on, you realize the shuffle lines turn GREEN,…

Worse yet, Spotify abruptly added a third option, Smart Shuffle, to their shuffle sometime in the past year or so. So now you gotta hit the button twice to go from shuffle to no shuffle, and once to go no shuffle to shuffle. This is for their mobile and desktop apps I mean. They gotta have some of the worst UX of newer consumer tech companies.
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