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I am planning to launch a new Forum/Chat app for Android/iPhone. The app requires users to specify a category before creating a new thread.

What is the most common method to show and allow users to choose the thread category without losing the focus on writing the new thread?

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Could you advise how many categories are involved? Is it a small number, like 5, or a great many like 50? Also, will threads be split into different collections based on the assigned category, or could a given forum contain many threads with differing categories? – Erics Apr 1 '12 at 11:27
"Most used method" isn't a very helpful (or easily measurable) metric. Could you edit your question to be more like "Is there a convention for how to do this" rather than "how do most people do X". – Ben Brocka♦ Apr 1 '12 at 14:58

closed as not constructive by dnbrv, JonW♦ May 5 '12 at 21:31

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1 Answer

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As in any mobile application, we have very limited space to work with. It's not uncommon to fill the entire screen with items (in your case categories) to choose from. Still, you want to let the user know where they are and not lose focus. I think the modal message box drop down works very well. Easy to use since there are big items to choose from and in the background you see where you are:

example image of modal message box on android

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thanks for the great help, the forum will contain a great number of categories might be over 50 one according to users discussions...and it will be a given forum contain many threads with differing categories – Abdullah Al-Khalidi Apr 1 '12 at 13:14
You're welcome. Having 50 categories in a dropdown is a lot. Maybe you should concider having less categories or group categories together using two dropdowns? Anyway, good luck with your app! – Benny Skogberg Apr 1 '12 at 13:19
I actually thought of different solution, which I'd like to have ur feedback on...it is to use Hashtags to allow users keep tracking of discussions, and show them in a list prioritized according to number of discussions! – Abdullah Al-Khalidi Apr 1 '12 at 13:27
Try tags, its about the same and work very well. Like on this site: ux.stackexchange.com/tags :-) – Benny Skogberg Apr 1 '12 at 13:29
Will try it and publish the results later stages...many thanks – Abdullah Al-Khalidi Apr 1 '12 at 13:38

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