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I'be been showing a prototype of my app to a few people and am surprises how many of them don't know where to type.

The main screen has 3 input doelde and a search button

I'm talking about the new ICS EditText widget where it shows a line and a hint

How should I handle this? I know native is the best wat to go but I'd feel bad ignoring this issue here's a picture of the input fields, these are native and not styled at all, but somehow people don't understand that they are supposed to type in them.

here's a picture of the input fields, these are native and not styled at all, but somehow people don't understand that they are supposed to type in them.

should I style the fields to be more like the input fields we see on the web or stick to the native input style?

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Please show us what you have and make the question more general to a problem that other people are likely to have which doesn't depend on a particular technology. – JohnGB Apr 21 at 14:09
I added a picture of the input fields, but I find it hard to seperate my question from te technology because that's what my question is about, should I style the fields to be more like the input fields we see on the web or stick to the native input style? – mars Apr 21 at 14:26
+1 The question is much better now. You should include your last comment into the question though, as it will improve it even more. – JohnGB Apr 21 at 16:28
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Provide a more explicit hint: "Street (enter here)" – uxzapper Apr 21 at 21:35
I allready have a text on above the form saying "fill in one of the 3 fields to search" – mars Apr 22 at 10:07

1 Answer

up vote 2 down vote accepted

If you are designing a native app (for any platform), you should use the standard elements as much as possible. That way a user of your app is more likely to know how to use it, assuming that they know how to use the standard apps that come with their platform.

In the case of Android, this is by far the most common way to show fields, and so I would strongly suggest using it.

However, if you were using this design for something for the web, I would need a very good reason to make it look like an Android app. People who don't use Android devices will very likely be confused by this at first (which is likely what you are observing), and so a traditional field is likely a better choice.

That said, I believe that given the current trends in smartphone growth and specifically Android growth, that this may not be an issue in a few years time.

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Decoder to stick to the default view like you suggested altough it's a weird input field I do hope like you said it won't be an issue for the users.... Thanks! – mars Apr 22 at 22:51
decided... damn autocorrect :/ – mars yesterday

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