Android CheckBox is hard to tap

Question

What are some good ways to make the CheckBox widget easier to tap in Android apps? In my app, both the CheckBox and the thing-behind-and-next-to-the-CheckBox are tappable, serving distinct functions. I've noticed that it's hard to target the CheckBox with my index finger, and I have slender fingers.

For context, this CheckBox is on the right side of a ListView adapter. The left side of the item has two TextViews. The ListView is a shopping list; the user taps the item in the shopping list to see a detailed description in a dialog, and taps the CheckBox to mark the item as purchased. Therefore, I can't just make the whole item tappable to toggle the CheckBox, as there would be no good way to view the detail dialog.

I've considered making some kind of ghost widget surrounding the CheckBox, which triggers a CheckBox toggle, just to make it a bigger target for fingers, but is that good UI design? Is there a best-practice solution?

Answer 1

You can try using a TouchDelegate to increase the clickable area of the checkbox itself. You can find an answer on SO indicating how to do that here.

Copy-pasting:

final View parent = (View) delegate.getParent();
parent.post( new Runnable() {
    // Post in the parent's message queue to make sure the parent
    // lays out its children before we call getHitRect()
    public void run() {
        final Rect r = new Rect();
        delegate.getHitRect(r);
        r.top -= 4;
        r.bottom += 4;
        parent.setTouchDelegate( new TouchDelegate( r , delegate));
    }
});

Answer 2

Yes you can increase padding like the question on stackoverflow and you have greatly increased usability. It is also good practice to make the text associated with the checkbox clickable, even if it isn't a regular input type. This technique is common on web applications, and it's good practice to use the same conventions in other context (Android app).

Good Luck!