A common practice in product development is assuming that a successful execution can be dropped into an unrelated context.
Take the iOS sliders as an example:
These work well with a touch-based OS, as you ‘grab’ the raised portion of the component and literally slide it from left to right (or vice versa). You’re moving the component from one location to another and the completion of that movement correlates with the value being modified.
Take a look at the American Express communication preferences:
I haven’t seen a control like this on a web site, though I assume the analogue is the iOS slider control, so here’s me attempting to grab and slide it:
Click here to view the embedded video.
What we have here is a component that relocates when you click it. This is different than the iOS slide where you take responsibility for the relocation.
These are on/off options and our vocabulary is for those is well-understood – checkboxes! Spend less time on this sort of thing please :)
