Projects/Usability/HIG/Toggle Buttons: Difference between revisions

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==Definition==
{{ Moved To Community | KDE_Visual_Design_Group/HIG/Toggle Buttons }}
 
A toggle button is a button which stays down when clicked once and goes up when clicked a second time.
 
==When to Use==
 
Use a toggle button to indicate a '''state'''.
 
Example: A word processor should use toggle buttons to indicate the state of "Bold", "Italic" or "Underline" formatting.
 
[[File:Toggle-button-formatting.png]]
(Toggle buttons used in a rich text editor)
 
==When not to Use==
 
Do not use a toggle button to indicate an '''action'''.
 
Example: A music player should not use a toggle button to implement a combined Play/Pause button. It should use a normal button and adjust the icon and label to represent the action which would be performed when clicked.
 
[[File:Toggle-button-media-player.png]]
 
==Icon and Label==
 
There are two ways to label a toggle button:
 
'''1. Describe the state which is reached when the button is down'''
 
In this case the icon and label should not change when the button is down.
 
For example a button to toggle the visibility of a sidebar could say "Show Sidebar". It should still say "Show Sidebar" when the button is down: it should not be changed to "Hide Sidebar".
 
If you want to change the button text to "Hide Sidebar" when the sidebar is shown then you should use a normal button, not a toggle button.
 
An alternative is to reduce the button to a noun if it is not ambiguous. In this example the button label could be reduced to "Sidebar".
 
[[File:Toggle-button-summary.png]]
 
'''2. Describe the current state'''
 
In this case the label will often include a passive verb. For example a button to lock or unlock an element would say "Unlocked" when it is up and "Locked" when it is down. The icon should match the label.
 
[[File:Toggle-button-unlocked-locked.png]]

Latest revision as of 12:09, 4 August 2016

This page is now on the community wiki.