The Toggle is a great tool when used effectively, but it can also cause significant confusion and frustration in shared environments. Savvy teams take a proactive approach to managing their feature toggle inventory and seek to keep it as low as possible in order to limit the potential impact of an out-of-control switch.

Toggle is a control that allows users to change a system setting or preference by changing a checkmark from ‘on’ to ‘off’. Toggles are more intuitive than radio buttons because they offer a single on/off option and are often favored in mobile interfaces since they require less screen space. Toggle controls should have clear and consistent visual cues to signal their status. For example, use high-contrast colors to provide an instant, unambiguous indication of state. Be sure to consider societal and cultural implications when choosing colors; for instance, red may be counterintuitive for a user base that associates it with stop signs or traffic signals. Also, consider incorporating a textual state descriptor next to the toggle to further enhance user clarity.

It’s critical to test your toggle configuration before it becomes live in production. Most teams perform a full set of tests with the current production toggles flipped on and a fallback configuration with all of your intended new or future toggles flipped off. This helps prevent the surprise regressions that can occur when a team accidentally leaves a feature flag in a live production environment.