[smaccona]

Am I wrong in thinking that checkboxes/tickboxes/whatever-one-calls-them are ubiquitously understandable across cultures from both an interpretation and interaction perspective? If so, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve made this assumption/mistake so I’d be happy to hear about it!

If not (and I am right in thinking these are globally understood), then there’s a clear advantage of the checkbox over the switch in that it doesn’t depend on any color recognition to convey the current state. This is a huge win - I have definitely encountered UI controls where the current state was not at all apparent.

I happen to use an iPhone, and haven’t personally had any issues interpreting the “switch” state nor the checkbox, but what if you’re color blind or from a culture where the color doesn’t necessarily mean what you think it does?

Edit: clarify intent

[jalfresi]

Checkboxes also have a fundamental dependency on the label to assist them with their affordance: a label for a checkbox should almost always be in the form of a yes/no question: “are you hungry? [ ]”

The “checked” box is an affirmative, empty is a negative. A checkbox without a label is useless because it has no context.

But I constantly see checkboxs without the question label. Think back to all those control panels and settings windows youve seen where the label for a checkbox is something like “animations [ ]”. Does that mean they are on by default? Does checking the checkbox switch them on or off?

Now compare with this “animations? [ ]” checking the checkbox has now become an answer to a question

[chrisjj]

> But I constantly see checkboxs without the question label.

Properly so.

Imagine every real-world appliance power toggle was labelled "Power?".

[jalfresi]

Real world appliances dont use checkboxes to power toggle

[chrisjj]

Checkbox is nearest in equivalence.