6 ms·

This is kind of embarrassing to admit, but I couldn’t figure out how to change the state of a toggle switch for a really long time. I kept trying to slide the s

This is kind of embarrassing to admit, but I couldn’t figure out how to change the state of a toggle switch for a really long time. I kept trying to slide the switch left or right. Sometimes it worked, but often it didn’t. It wasn’t until I had been using an iPhone for a couple years that I discovered you’re just supposed to press it, not slide it. What a stupid design.

meigwilym 4y ago
Years ago I built a cms using these sliders, and one of the users was having problems. I double checked and it worked fine. So I said I'd watch him use it to see what was wrong. He clicked the slider and dragged it to the other side. My jQuery code was listening for 'click' events, which was the source of the bug. Since then I'm careful to use them "properly".
bbx 4y ago
On iOS, you can either press it or slide it. The problem is that a lot of websites have started using them and only implement the click/tap event, not the mouse press and move event, or the slide event. So they end up being quite misleading.
boomboomsubban 4y ago
Similar. In my defense, lock screens on phones used to have a toggle switch you needed to slide.
- Terretta 4y ago
  Those were not a toggle. They were a sliding latch: https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/5cd445f6-b24c-4e39-8c10-0a0311cd96b1_1.c65803773c3fc59dc681260298d6fb2b.jpeg https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/5cd445f6-b24c-4e39-8c10-0a0...
  - ilyt 4y ago
    And UIs started using sliding latch icon for toggles, which is the point of contention here
    - Terretta 4y ago
      These toggles descend from dip switches, not latches. Consumer electronics had dip switches behind precisely the graphical design Apple introduced for these toggles. Some of the early skeuomorphic designs (this is not Apple, nor early, just illustrative) made this more obvious: https://cdn.dribbble.com/users/291697/screenshots/1027928/onoffsliders.jpg https://cdn.dribbble.com/users/291697/screenshots/1027928/on... Another common implementation looks like a two or more position slider, but still not a latch: https://alphauniverse.media.zestyio.com/gmaster-sel85f14gm-logo-close1.d4899f96e1858d7c1e61787a9f72ea96.jpg https://alphauniverse.media.zestyio.com/gmaster-sel85f14gm-l...
      - everybodyknows 4y ago
        "DIP switch" is an acronym for "Dual Inline Package switch". Such as these: https://octopart.com/electronic-parts/electromechanical/switches/dip-switches?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=b_cpc_amer-us_search_dsa_english_en_usd_all-categories&utm_term=octopart&utm_content=All%20Pages%20%20DSA https://octopart.com/electronic-parts/electromechanical/swit...
        Terretta 4y ago
        Yes, exactly what I'm talking about behind the consumer facing physical UI. You can buy single DIP switches in parts catalogs: https://i.imgur.com/isfVR18.jpg https://i.imgur.com/isfVR18.jpg https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/CUI-Devices/DS01-254-L-01BE?qs=wnTfsH77Xs4oJE51LF1cMQ%3D%3D https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/CUI-Devices/DS01-254-L-... I thought 'everybodyknows' that. ;-)
judofyr 4y ago
> It wasn’t until I had been using an iPhone for a couple years that I discovered you’re just supposed to press it, not slide it. Huh? On the iPhone you've always been able to slide it. I blame this on all the other implementation which copied the switch design, but didn't bother to implement sliding…
- Terretta 4y ago
  Just confirmed, on 16.3 still slides, you can even do it partially/slowly. Readily accessible one is settings airplane mode, first setting in settings. Absence of verb in label makes it clear what it is. Meanwhile, on Kindle, it shows a black airplane in a white circle labeled "Off" and a white airplane in a black circle labeled "On". This is a recent update from before where the first was an airplane with a slash through it for Off. In both cases, Cell/WiFi is on when labeled Off, network+radios are on when icon was airplane with a slash through it labeled off.
- stefncb 4y ago
  I have an iPad. There seem to be two kinds of toggle switches in the native apple apps; one of them slides and animates, but the other one can only be pressed and it doesn't animate the transition. The latter is less common, but I've seen both in the same app before (settings I think). It's likely a strange bug, but I think it's relevant since you can't _always_ slide it.
- lawkwok 4y ago
  I’ve always liked Apple’s implementation because the slider has a temporal state. Airplane mode used to take a a couple seconds to enable so the toggle felt “stickier” to toggle. When you tapped on the toggle, the round button elongated and stayed in the middle for a split second before hitting the right side boundary of the toggle.
  - eproxus 4y ago
    That seems to no longer be the case. Toggling Bluetooth on iOS 16.2 on an iPhone 14 Pro replaces the slider with a spinner, and it even flickers when turned back on. Also, the sliding only works correctly if you press and hold and then start sliding. If you swipe, it toggles regardless of which direction you swipe.
Existenceblinks 4y ago
The problem is the popular toggle switch should be like a extension socket switch, not the slide body color as status. The head of each end should be lighted up, not the body.
kzrdude 4y ago
I happily confirmed that the settings app in GNOME Shell 42 implements sliding correctly, it works fine.. so I tried slide, slide, slide and a little bit more and the gnome-shell process crashed :)
- deelly 4y ago
  Sorry, but why this is so funny?
  - LudwigNagasena 4y ago
    Because it’s 2023 and we can’t get basic UI that works properly?
    - kzrdude 4y ago
      Crashing is funny. In this case, it's hopefully because of the thing it toggled and not the UI. (I was toggling "allow overamplification" in the sound settings). Maybe this is the relevant line of the crash log: Object Gio.DBusProxy (0x55e4d0f30a90), has been already deallocated
      - everybodyknows 4y ago
        Sure sounds like a race. Building race-free software is hard, disciplined work, and may require blocking proposals for "hot" new features. So the cooler heads tend to lose those skirmishes, on either a FOSS or commercial battleground.
      - nix0n 4y ago
        > In this case, it's hopefully because of the thing it toggled and not the UI. I think this is true, since I get Gnome crashes in the bluetooth settings and nowhere else.
      - QUrprUd1nCeicw 4y ago
        Have you reported that as a bug?

meigwilym 4y ago

Years ago I built a cms using these sliders, and one of the users was having problems. I double checked and it worked fine. So I said I'd watch him use it to see what was wrong. He clicked the slider and dragged it to the other side. My jQuery code was listening for 'click' events, which was the source of the bug. Since then I'm careful to use them "properly".

bbx 4y ago

On iOS, you can either press it or slide it. The problem is that a lot of websites have started using them and only implement the click/tap event, not the mouse press and move event, or the slide event. So they end up being quite misleading.

boomboomsubban 4y ago

Similar. In my defense, lock screens on phones used to have a toggle switch you needed to slide.

Terretta 4y ago
Those were not a toggle. They were a sliding latch: https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/5cd445f6-b24c-4e39-8c10-0a0311cd96b1_1.c65803773c3fc59dc681260298d6fb2b.jpeg https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/5cd445f6-b24c-4e39-8c10-0a0...
- ilyt 4y ago
  And UIs started using sliding latch icon for toggles, which is the point of contention here
  - Terretta 4y ago
    These toggles descend from dip switches, not latches. Consumer electronics had dip switches behind precisely the graphical design Apple introduced for these toggles. Some of the early skeuomorphic designs (this is not Apple, nor early, just illustrative) made this more obvious: https://cdn.dribbble.com/users/291697/screenshots/1027928/onoffsliders.jpg https://cdn.dribbble.com/users/291697/screenshots/1027928/on... Another common implementation looks like a two or more position slider, but still not a latch: https://alphauniverse.media.zestyio.com/gmaster-sel85f14gm-logo-close1.d4899f96e1858d7c1e61787a9f72ea96.jpg https://alphauniverse.media.zestyio.com/gmaster-sel85f14gm-l...
    - everybodyknows 4y ago
      "DIP switch" is an acronym for "Dual Inline Package switch". Such as these: https://octopart.com/electronic-parts/electromechanical/switches/dip-switches?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=b_cpc_amer-us_search_dsa_english_en_usd_all-categories&utm_term=octopart&utm_content=All%20Pages%20%20DSA https://octopart.com/electronic-parts/electromechanical/swit...
      - Terretta 4y ago
        Yes, exactly what I'm talking about behind the consumer facing physical UI. You can buy single DIP switches in parts catalogs: https://i.imgur.com/isfVR18.jpg https://i.imgur.com/isfVR18.jpg https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/CUI-Devices/DS01-254-L-01BE?qs=wnTfsH77Xs4oJE51LF1cMQ%3D%3D https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/CUI-Devices/DS01-254-L-... I thought 'everybodyknows' that. ;-)

judofyr 4y ago

> It wasn’t until I had been using an iPhone for a couple years that I discovered you’re just supposed to press it, not slide it. Huh? On the iPhone you've always been able to slide it. I blame this on all the other implementation which copied the switch design, but didn't bother to implement sliding…

Terretta 4y ago
Just confirmed, on 16.3 still slides, you can even do it partially/slowly. Readily accessible one is settings airplane mode, first setting in settings. Absence of verb in label makes it clear what it is. Meanwhile, on Kindle, it shows a black airplane in a white circle labeled "Off" and a white airplane in a black circle labeled "On". This is a recent update from before where the first was an airplane with a slash through it for Off. In both cases, Cell/WiFi is on when labeled Off, network+radios are on when icon was airplane with a slash through it labeled off.
stefncb 4y ago
I have an iPad. There seem to be two kinds of toggle switches in the native apple apps; one of them slides and animates, but the other one can only be pressed and it doesn't animate the transition. The latter is less common, but I've seen both in the same app before (settings I think). It's likely a strange bug, but I think it's relevant since you can't _always_ slide it.
lawkwok 4y ago
I’ve always liked Apple’s implementation because the slider has a temporal state. Airplane mode used to take a a couple seconds to enable so the toggle felt “stickier” to toggle. When you tapped on the toggle, the round button elongated and stayed in the middle for a split second before hitting the right side boundary of the toggle.
- eproxus 4y ago
  That seems to no longer be the case. Toggling Bluetooth on iOS 16.2 on an iPhone 14 Pro replaces the slider with a spinner, and it even flickers when turned back on. Also, the sliding only works correctly if you press and hold and then start sliding. If you swipe, it toggles regardless of which direction you swipe.

Existenceblinks 4y ago

The problem is the popular toggle switch should be like a extension socket switch, not the slide body color as status. The head of each end should be lighted up, not the body.

kzrdude 4y ago

I happily confirmed that the settings app in GNOME Shell 42 implements sliding correctly, it works fine.. so I tried slide, slide, slide and a little bit more and the gnome-shell process crashed :)

deelly 4y ago
Sorry, but why this is so funny?
- LudwigNagasena 4y ago
  Because it’s 2023 and we can’t get basic UI that works properly?
  - kzrdude 4y ago
    Crashing is funny. In this case, it's hopefully because of the thing it toggled and not the UI. (I was toggling "allow overamplification" in the sound settings). Maybe this is the relevant line of the crash log: Object Gio.DBusProxy (0x55e4d0f30a90), has been already deallocated
    - everybodyknows 4y ago
      Sure sounds like a race. Building race-free software is hard, disciplined work, and may require blocking proposals for "hot" new features. So the cooler heads tend to lose those skirmishes, on either a FOSS or commercial battleground.
    - nix0n 4y ago
      > In this case, it's hopefully because of the thing it toggled and not the UI. I think this is true, since I get Gnome crashes in the bluetooth settings and nowhere else.
    - QUrprUd1nCeicw 4y ago
      Have you reported that as a bug?