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Should a toggle button show its current state or the state to which it will change?
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this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2024
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Programming
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Exactly. A light switch* shows its current state, and toggle buttons are effectively an equivalent to that.
*Standard, two-way garden variety light switch
I'd argue that a light switch has an indicator that shows the current state, separate from the switch.
Not if the globe has blown out, in which case you need the switch to indicate which state it is in (unless you like to live dangerously and change globes in lights that may be still on :-) ).
Light switches are a bad example. Up doesn't mean on and down doesn't mean off when you have multiple switches for the same thing.
These switches visibly have 2 states and switching it means you want the other one. In tech it's less obvious that there are only two states and that toggling the button will do something in particular. Recall the play and pause button on your media app. That button could change the state in any number of ways but in order to convey to the user what will happen BEFORE the button is pressed, the player shows what action will take place.
You're already in the current state, that rarely adds info. Toggles should indicate what they will do.
When I think "toggle" switch, I think in terms of binary states: on or off. Which is why I used a light switch as an example rather than a media play/pause button which can have multiple states. In that scenario, yes, it would be more intuitive for the button to display the action it will perform.
In my experience only kinda, and by convention (up is on), and three-way switches break this (indicator becomes the light itself).
That's not the convention in my country. Up is off here. And no switches have labels either.