My rule is if it’s a Verb, then what it will do: “Enable”, “Join/Leave”, “Turn on/off”, “Play/Pause”
If it’s an adjective, noun or description of a state, then the condition is what is written. ON/OFF, Enabled, Joined/Left, “Repeating 1/Repeating ALL/Repeat OFF”
Shuffle/Random Play is ambiguous, but it’s either Shuffle ON, Shuffle OFF like the second category, or Shuffle/Unshuffle as the first category.
E: Added the media player example from the original thread.
If it’s a verb it should be a button, not a toggle
Toggles should not exist. They should be check boxes. Checked if “ON”, unchecked if “OFF” with a mouse over tooltip if there is any chance that it’s ambiguous.
@calcopiritus @starman
Buttons/switches trigger an immediate action, whereas checkboxes usually do not (such as on a settings page, where no changes are applied unless you click “save”).
I agree with the accepted answer that a toggle button UI – when unadorned with any other indicators – should be avoided due to the ambiguity. The fact that this question is being asked is an indicator of non-uniform consensus.
In American English, the verb “to table” means “to remove from discussion entirely”, which is almost entirely the opposite meaning from English spoken anywhere else in the world, where it means “to bring forward for discussion”. As a result of this US-specific confusion, there’s not much choice besides either clarifying through context or avoiding sentence constructions using that verb, at least when speaking to or with other Americans.
I think the same applies here: the small UI space savings is not worth the inevitable UX confusion this would cause, without modifications.
“Sanction” is another great contranym. As far as I know, the meaning doesn’t even depend on dialect, just context.
There are a few words that are their own antonyms. You would think any at all would be too many…
