Re:Ask HN: Why are toggle switches replacing checkboxes? Isn...
by saagarjha on Thursday January 19, 2023 @03:57AM
(#34438165)
> In general, don't replace a checkbox with a switch.
Someone tell Apple's Settings team
Re:Ask HN: Why are toggle switches replacing checkboxes? Isn...
by leokennis on Thursday January 19, 2023 @04:24AM
(#34438341)
Someone fire Apple's UI/UX team, and bring back the people from the Leopard era who actually understood the value of an understated, predictable and standardized UI.
Re:Ask HN: Why are toggle switches replacing checkboxes? Isn...
by DonHopkins on Thursday January 19, 2023 @04:53PM
(#34446179)
It's been decades since Apple had competent compassionate trained UI designers instead of narcissistic showboating cosmeticians, who'd even heard of, let alone read or actually written, Apple's own Human Interface Guidelines from 1978 onward, and aren't just motivated and addled by cocaine and a burning desire to prove to the world they're actually sensitive artists joyfully expressing their deeply unique spiritual creativity to immortalize themselves in the historic pantheon next to Leonardo da Vinci, and not mere usability engineers navigating difficult tradeoffs and conventions and applying sound scientific principles so users can actually get work done, instead pointlessly changing and banishing practical pixels and affable affordances that were there for reasons they're blissfully unaware of, which they wouldn't give a shit about even if Bruce Tognazzini, Bill Atkinson, Don Norman, and the ghost of Jeff Raskin themselves begged them to, simply to polish their resumes and burnish their egos, by spraying their sweaty cloying musk over every possible surface merely to express their ownership, just like the Cat in Red Dwarf. [But I digress...]
Red Dwarf - The Cat - That be mine!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q54lVO7elt0
How Apple Is Giving Design A Bad Name (2015)
https://www.fastcompany.com/3053406/how-apple-is-giving-desi...
A history of Apple HIG table of contents – the philosophy and principles
https://modelessdesign.com/backdrop/401
Rediscovering Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines from 1987: UX Lessons from the Dawn of the Personal Computer
https://blog.prototypr.io/rediscovering-apples-human-interfa...
Switches
--------
Avoid using a switch to control a single detail or a minor setting. A switch has more visual weight than a checkbox, so it looks better when it controls more functionality than a checkbox typically does. For example, you might use a switch to let people turn on or off a group of settings, instead of just one setting.
In general, don't replace a checkbox with a switch. If you're already using a checkbox in your interface, it's probably best to keep using it.
Checkboxes
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A checkbox is a small square button that’s empty when the button is off, contains a checkmark when the button is on, and can contain a dash when the button’s state is mixed. Unless a checkbox appears in a checklist, a descriptive label follows the button.
Use a checkbox instead of a switch if you need to present a hierarchy of settings. The visual style of checkboxes helps them align well and communicate grouping. By using alignment — generally along the leading edge of the checkboxes — and indentation, you can show dependencies, such as when the state of a checkbox governs the state of subordinate checkboxes.