Change check box text or not change?

Question

I have an argument with an employee, and I'm trying to convince him that it is a bad idea to change the text (label) of the flag in accordance with the state of the flag.

For example, we have a combobox that automatically selects the selected value (and turns off) when the checkbox next to it is checked and on when the checkbox is unchecked. His idea is to show Autoselect when the checkbox is checked, and manually select when it is cleared. I am sure this will confuse the user, as users tend to think that checking the checkbox next to the verb will make it true only to find that the label has changed to something else.

What is your opinion on this?

PS I remember how I read about changing the flag code somewhere, in a book or blog article, but I can’t remember where. It would be great to have this in writing :-)

Answer 1

No need to mess around with something that already works.

Changing the label would be terribly confusing and inconsistent, especially in the way you describe.

If the label describes the current state (“Manual selection”), it will be unclear whether it is necessary to click on the flag to reach the described state (for example, using the button), or whether it already exists in this state.

A check mark is a simple thing. When it is turned off, it does A. When it is turned on, it does not perform A. The label should reflect what it does when it turns on; then it is very clear what does not happen when it is turned off.

Answer 2

If you want to show that the choice between "Auto" and "Manual", you must either rewrite your checkbox or select the switch:

o Manual Select * Auto Select 

This is also not an ideal option.

But you should not change the text on the label - the user will not remember what happened before, and will be confused when he changes.

Answer 3

Personnaly, I would say that the label should not change.

Answer 4

In my experience, changing the text is confused, I have the same problem with modal buttons that change their text. It is difficult to say whether pressing the button will turn on the selected state or whether the text is the selected state.

Mark the text in the block not .

Answer 5

Changing the text, when checked, changes the value. If it is checked and the label says “Auto-pickup,” I expect the “Auto-start” option to be enabled. If you uncheck the box, it is clear that the "Autostart" is NOT activated. If you change the text for manual selection, whenever the checkmark is cleared, I expect that when you select the checkbox, the "Manual selection" option will be enabled. This is too confusing if the text continues to change.

You are right, he is mistaken.

Answer 6

Flag labels should not change. This part of the way flags work.

See Should the “toggle buttons” show what they do or system status? on UXExchange for an alternative approach, using toggle buttons instead of checkboxes.

Answer 7

The label should definitely not change. This is not only confusing, but also unnecessary and ugly.

The only way I can think to make it less confusing would be to have the label state in brackets of the current state, that is, "Manual (currently auto) []".

But this is really just a test of how ugly it is.

Do not interfere with what people are used to. Especially when you consider that if you do this, it will always be displayed with a checkmark, and the other WITHOUT. Really confused.

In the name of compromise, you can use the button instead, which switches the control back and forth, and changes its value with each click.

Current mode: [Manual]

However, they are still confused. As I said, don’t mess with what people are used to. You like it if you place the scroll bar to the left of the screen. It will just mess around with people's heads.

Answer 8

I would not change the flag label ... I would say that it is "automatic". But, depending on what your controls actually do, I can change the selection in the highlighted combo box to reflect that it is now under automatic control.

Then, in order for the logic to go in both directions, if the flag was unchecked, the user selected an “automatic” value in the combined field, then the flag will be checked.

Or in another scenario:

If, when the "automatic" checkbox is selected, the automatic logic actually selects the default value that is in the combo box, and then change the selection in the combo box to show what automatic tuning is. The combo will not be edited, but it can be used to provide information about the actual setting that is involved.