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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • True, there are exceptions (that’s why I keep saying most), and I think the pattern is more common on web than on desktop. (Though I think Gnome also compensates a bit with their boxed lists as an additional affordance.)

    Note that I am 100% on your side in saying that there are annoying toggle boxes that are unclear. In your image, I can only tell that the second is probably on because the right-hand side is usually used for the on state in LTR locales. But they can be better, e.g. with an on/off label integrated. Ironically, GNOME has a toggle to enable this:


  • Well, I’d encourage you to keep an eye out; I think you’ll find that the majority of controls on the web behave as I described. And I think that’s a good thing, too: it’s far quicker and easier to be able to deduce behaviour from the control you’re handling at the moment, than having to scan the complete context. And especially if e.g. you’re visually impaired, the latter can be a major hassle.

    (And indeed, the other controls you mention almost never apply instantly, so their behaviour is still predictable. When they do, they’ll often still have some other affordances to indicate that they do apply instantly.)


  • I was trying to make the point that the way a control looks gives you some information on how it will behave, because software has generally been consistent with associating those looks with those behaviours.

    So if you see multiple options with a circle in front of them, selecting one, then selecting another will usually deselect the first one.

    On the other hand, if those options have squares in front of them, selecting one, then selecting another will usually result in both of them being selected.

    And in both cases, usually they will be part of a form and will only take effect when you submit that form using a button.

    On the other hand, something that looks like a toggle usually takes effect immediately on toggling.

    Of course it is technically always possible to have each of those behave like any of the others, but you will be breaking conventions if you do so. Styling is an affordance to inform the user about the behaviour.