Re:Ask HN: Why are toggle switches replacing checkboxes? Isn...
by denton-scratch on Thursday January 19, 2023 @02:27PM
(#34444476)
> the enabled option was grayed out and when disabled it was colored
In the old, default browser UI, buttons had black labels when enabled, and grey ones when disabled.
Then web designers started making button widgets that looked "cooler" than button elements. Then they realized that they could use the new "buttons" to make indicators as well; so they repurposed the enabled/disabled idiom to mean instead "on/off" or "yes/no". So now the idiom is ambiguous.
If you want a dual-purpose button/indicator, emulate those old keyboards that had an on/off neon in the CAPS-lock key. I prefer a separate indicator, but at least those old CAPS-locks were ergonomically unambiguous.
In the old, default browser UI, buttons had black labels when enabled, and grey ones when disabled.
Then web designers started making button widgets that looked "cooler" than button elements. Then they realized that they could use the new "buttons" to make indicators as well; so they repurposed the enabled/disabled idiom to mean instead "on/off" or "yes/no". So now the idiom is ambiguous.
If you want a dual-purpose button/indicator, emulate those old keyboards that had an on/off neon in the CAPS-lock key. I prefer a separate indicator, but at least those old CAPS-locks were ergonomically unambiguous.