Switch copy should name the state, not the action
Aliases: toggle label · noun label · state versus action copy
What it is
Copy beside a switch should name the state being controlled, not the action a throw will perform. “Wi-Fi,” “Notifications,” “Location” still make a sentence when the knob is on or off. “Turn on notifications” or “tap to disable” does not: when the knob is already on, the verb reads as an order to start something that has started, or leaves people unsure whether throwing the other way completes the verb or undoes it.
State copy is a noun or noun phrase pointing at the object. Action copy is a verb pointing at an operation that has not happened yet. The switch already performed the operation; the sentence should not still hold a dangling verb.
Why it happens
People read the label as a description of the current world, then treat the knob as that description’s truth value. A verb will not take a truth value: “Enable Bluetooth” on the on position looks unfinished, and on the off position looks like a command to enable it. Double negatives are worse: “Disable Do Not Disturb” in the on position could mean DND is working or that it has already been killed.
Writing “On / Off” at the two ends does not rescue a verb label; the fragments and the verb compete. Screen readers typically speak “Name, switch, on/off”; if Name is already “Turn on X,” the utterance stacks into “Turn on X, switch, on.” A state name keeps role and value apart; an action name kneads them into one clause.
Where it stops holding
If two exclusive modes are forced into switch clothing, the label should still be the mode name (“Low Power Mode”), not “switch to low power.” A function with no stable noun (“mark read as unread,” a one-shot) should not be a switch at all; use a button. Brand words and abbreviations are fine as labels when they name the object, not the operation. When a peer rewrites the state (another panel turns the meeting-room lights off), the label still names the object; the change travels through knob position and a side note, not a temporary rewrite of the label into “turning off.”
Applying it
- Rewrite each switch label as an object name that remains grammatical in both positions; strip verbs such as enable, disable, tap.
- Put extra explanation on a helper line under the label, not on the two ends of the track.
- Listen with a screen reader: the utterance should be object plus on or off, not a verb wrapped around a verb.
- How to check: hide the knob, leave the words, ask “what is it like now?” If the answer is “it is telling me to do something” rather than “this feature is in this state,” the copy is an action, not a state.