2 ms·

I agree with the author's wish for visual cues when something is clickable, scrollable, etc.... This, on the other hand: > Imitating real objects is good, too

by Zak 4mo ago

I agree with the author's wish for visual cues when something is clickable, scrollable, etc.... This, on the other hand: > Imitating real objects is good, too -- I don't have a single one of Android's "sliders" anywhere in my house, for example, so why don't you make this a checkbox, because writing down a check mark on paper is something that I actually do: feels like an idea from a time when many people were encountering UIs on screens for the very first time as adults. I think the slider would be recognized as a toggle in its usual context of a settings screen by most people who have seen a settings screen before, but not that specific design for a toggle.

delta_p_delta_x 4mo ago
There is a specific UI guideline for something that can be enabled or not: it's called a tick box. The on-off switch thing is a distinctly iOS invention [1]. The funny thing is that OS X (now macOS) mostly held off using those 'switches' too, until fairly recently. [1]: https://freeimage.host/i/CxYBW6G https://freeimage.host/i/CxYBW6G
- Zak 4mo ago
  Whose specific UI guideline are you talking about? Android's recommends the switch component for setting toggles: https://m3.material.io/components/switch/overview https://m3.material.io/components/switch/overview
- zozbot234 4mo ago
  The switch widget is for settings where flipping the switch takes immediate effect, unlike a checkbox where you have to press some "OK", "Submit" or "Apply" button. In Windows 2000/Office UIs, this would've been shown as a button that could visibly switch between "pressed" and "not pressed" states, just like a push-down switch, but that was rarely used. The modern labeled switch design is a lot more intuitive than that.
  - nottorp 4mo ago
    > The modern labeled switch design is a lot more intuitive than that. In a lot of the modern switches I meet with the colour choice makes it totally unclear which is on and which is off. Ok, if it's a cookie acceptance dialog it makes sense to do dark patterns, but I've seen it in legit apps too.
    - ConceptJunkie 4mo ago
      DVD menus is another place where this confusion happens. Of course, any DVDs I buy these days are ripped, converted to H.265 and put on the NAS.
chriswarbo 4mo ago
> I think the slider would be recognized as a toggle in its usual context of a settings screen by most people who have seen a settings screen before, but not that specific design for a toggle. I've been using computers since the early 90s; we got our first home computer when I was four; I've used many different operating systems. As a professional Web developer, it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out what those slider widgets are supposed to mean. It's still very easy to get them wrong/confused (both as a user, and as the designer/dev making the form), e.g. when the affirmative state involves a negative setting, like "Mute" (does "on" mean "muted"; or does "on" refer to the audio, which I can use this to mute?)

by Zak 4mo ago

delta_p_delta_x 4mo ago

There is a specific UI guideline for something that can be enabled or not: it's called a tick box. The on-off switch thing is a distinctly iOS invention [1]. The funny thing is that OS X (now macOS) mostly held off using those 'switches' too, until fairly recently. [1]: https://freeimage.host/i/CxYBW6G https://freeimage.host/i/CxYBW6G

Zak 4mo ago
Whose specific UI guideline are you talking about? Android's recommends the switch component for setting toggles: https://m3.material.io/components/switch/overview https://m3.material.io/components/switch/overview
zozbot234 4mo ago
The switch widget is for settings where flipping the switch takes immediate effect, unlike a checkbox where you have to press some "OK", "Submit" or "Apply" button. In Windows 2000/Office UIs, this would've been shown as a button that could visibly switch between "pressed" and "not pressed" states, just like a push-down switch, but that was rarely used. The modern labeled switch design is a lot more intuitive than that.
- nottorp 4mo ago
  > The modern labeled switch design is a lot more intuitive than that. In a lot of the modern switches I meet with the colour choice makes it totally unclear which is on and which is off. Ok, if it's a cookie acceptance dialog it makes sense to do dark patterns, but I've seen it in legit apps too.
  - ConceptJunkie 4mo ago
    DVD menus is another place where this confusion happens. Of course, any DVDs I buy these days are ripped, converted to H.265 and put on the NAS.

chriswarbo 4mo ago

> I think the slider would be recognized as a toggle in its usual context of a settings screen by most people who have seen a settings screen before, but not that specific design for a toggle. I've been using computers since the early 90s; we got our first home computer when I was four; I've used many different operating systems. As a professional Web developer, it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out what those slider widgets are supposed to mean. It's still very easy to get them wrong/confused (both as a user, and as the designer/dev making the form), e.g. when the affirmative state involves a negative setting, like "Mute" (does "on" mean "muted"; or does "on" refer to the audio, which I can use this to mute?)