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I am building an iPad application which is going to let users to enter information such as texts, dates and other options as well.

As we all know, iPad screens are very big. So building forms is a bit tricky because i get to think about how i am going to fill all the whitespace. That's one point.

The other point is, when i have a a label "Date of Birth" for example. According to my experience in creating web applications, i should put this label on the left hand side with a date picker component on the right side of the label. However, iPad's date picker is very big in terms of height so it won't align with the label.

All other fields such as text fields should be alright aligning with labels and should take the width of the remaining screen.

One alternative is to add textfield and a button "Select Date" which when clicked, a popup with the date picker visible so that the user selects the date, presses done and the date is filled inside the textfield.

Any thoughts on this? generally speaking, how does one design forms for the iPad with all the screen space available? what considerations should be aware of when doing so?

Thank you

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Albeit this has absolutely nothing to do with UX, if you want to "fill" your whitespace and you seriously think that an iPad's screen is "big", perhaps you should read Wikipedia about whitespace and learn that fingers are quite inprecise pointing devices, therefore everything clickable has to be big – Aadaam Aug 3 '12 at 0:01
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Perhaps it would be better if you structured this as a question or a series of questions, because it's difficult to see what's being asked here. – Yisela Aug 3 '12 at 4:15
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I've closed this post for the time being because there doesn't seem to be an actual question here. What specifically about iPad forms are you wanting help with? Are you asking if fields should fill the whole width? Should you contain a whole form within one screen? If you can tighten up this post so that there is actual question that someone can specifically answer then we can reopen it for you, but it's too ambiguous and vague at the moment I'm afraid. – JonW♦ Aug 3 '12 at 7:39
When you rework the question, it may be helpful to include why the form must fill the available space. I wouldn't necessarily agree with that premise (and I'm probably not alone in that), so some laying-out of ground-rules will help inform the answers. – Andrew Leach Aug 3 '12 at 7:44

closed as not a real question by JonW♦ Aug 3 '12 at 7:37

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.