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Comment by dexwiz | Hacker News Reader

I like the checkboxes and loath the toggle. But after surveying people outside of the tech scene, for anyone with processing issues like ADHD, they report check boxes as easy to misinterpret. Something about the physical movement of the toggle helps them. So I relent and implement toggles.

But yeah, fuck round checkboxes. Shows the people driving now are more business oriented and have no love for the culture.

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There is a significant difference between checkboxes and toggles. Checkboxes expect a secondary submit step, whereas toggles have instant effect. https://blog.uxtweak.com/checkbox-vs-toggle-switch/ explains this better. Especially the pizza toppings example, that obviously make no sense with toggles.

Checkboxes can also have an indeterminate state (usually with a "-" in place of the checkmark), like the ones you can see at the below link (and which your link also mentions).

https://storybook.react95.io/?path=/story/controls-checkbox-...

I think the ternary checkbox has two uses: when it's a master checkbox, showing whether all of the binary checkboxes in a group are selected, and it may also be used on its own (the UI may have different actions for the three possible states).

Only if that is how you implement it.

I have done tons of toggles that are not reactive, being a form submit

You can...but it will be unexpected for most users and for most use cases. Look at the pizza toppings example in the link above again, it’s a clear semantic difference.

I can implement a radio button that allows multiple choices also, doesn’t mean it is the right thing to do.

Now there are of course exceptions to the rule. One case where instant reaction on checkboxes are common is filters in online stores. I think that’s a leftover design from the days you had to actively click search on each change to the filters. Those will work equally good with toggles.

I dislike toggles as the on/off state is not always obvious. Some fun examples I've encountered:

* red is "on" and by default already selected, black is "off";

* black is "on";

* saw one cookie consent form with red meaning "on", and green meaning "off".

> saw one cookie consent form with red meaning "on", and green meaning "off".

Cookie consent forms are specifically designed with all sorts of misleading and user-hostile patterns, so I would not take them as an example of anything. I'm sure there are consent forms out there with checkboxes where checked means no.

If you like to design good UX, you shouldn't look at any cookie consent forms.

That is frustrating, and very bad accessibility.

It should always be grey = off, darker = on.

Except in dark mode when lighter should be on.

The first time my mother encountered a toggle she tried to actually slide it. I also once saw a website which replaced in a redesign checkboxes with toggles where the cursor changes to a "grab hand" but of cause you cannot grab and slide them need to click it. Imo it is not intuitive that you have to click toggles and they magically start sliding but you cannot slide them.

I've encountered many toggle switches where you can grab the knob and drag it, but just clicking it will toggle it too. Sometimes the cursor has changed to a pointing hand.

My particular cultivar of ADHD doesn't have a problem with check boxes, and in fact I dislike toggles for some reason I can't quite identify. That alone is not a very useful anecdatum, but I'm having trouble figuring out what it is that would cause different adhdemons to favour the toggles.

There is a nice visual distinction for toggles, as if you have an "On" and "Off" column for each option. Then again that idea would have a conflict where it should be a radio circle because you can't be both On and Off, but a checkbox square because more than on option (row) could be On. Maybe a shape with a flat top and rounded sides (a "stadium") would be good for following the conventions while being worse and more confusing overall.

> in fact I dislike toggles for some reason I can't quite identify.

For me it's that the "on" and "off" state are styled inconsistently and can be difficult to guess without toggling. Whether a checkbox is checked or not is never in question.

> There is a nice visual distinction for toggles, as if you have an "On" and "Off" column for each option.

Except there is no such column, so the visual distinction is not self documenting, whereas a checkbox or radio very much is.

I like toggles, they are much larger touch targets and easier to hit one-handed when you're running late to a meeting and can't hold your phone still.

Toggles are better than checkboxes imo, but checkboxes are a lot harder to mess up design-wise. It's really easy to make a toggle that makes it completely impossible to tell if it's on or off.

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