Image by: Nuno Pinheiro Following posts on specific work being done on Oxygen, this post is going to try to go beyond the manifest work and look at the bigger picture driving it. The motivation for…
Taking effect instantly is not really indicated by the control shape; it’s indicated by whether or not the form has a button equivalent to “apply”. Settings pages with checkboxes that applied immediately have been common for years; this distinction is not nearly as clear cut as you make out. I suspect what is going on is that both toggle switches and the removal of a separate apply step has gone on gradually at the same time.
But a good thing to think about is all the other controls: drop downs, text entry boxes, date pickers - these have no second version which might apply instantly or not! So it’s a mistake to think that information is conveyed by the look of the control.
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.)
Taking effect instantly is not really indicated by the control shape; it’s indicated by whether or not the form has a button equivalent to “apply”. Settings pages with checkboxes that applied immediately have been common for years; this distinction is not nearly as clear cut as you make out. I suspect what is going on is that both toggle switches and the removal of a separate apply step has gone on gradually at the same time.
But a good thing to think about is all the other controls: drop downs, text entry boxes, date pickers - these have no second version which might apply instantly or not! So it’s a mistake to think that information is conveyed by the look of the control.
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.)