Should I hide the tab bar on iOS when I'm creating a new item?

Question

Background

I'm building an application with a tab bar at the bottom showing two different object types - for example, buildings and trucks.

Each of these tabs shows buildings and trucks in separate table views.

I want the user to be able to create a new building or a new truck.

I'm aware that it's common practice to hide the tab bar on a leaf view controller - but does this apply to the New Building/Truck screen too?

Question

When I show a New Building/Truck screen, should I hide the tab bar or show it?

Answer 1

When I show a New Building/Truck screen, should I hide the tab bar or show it?

You should hide it.

You'll find it common to completely push out the list view (including the tab bar) and show the new item-creation view. Then when the user taps on "Cancel" or "Done", they will be returned to the list + tab view.

Answer 2

I am looking at a very similar situation within an app. I couldn't find much in the iOS design guidelines apart from that tab bars should be consistent.

I think (and I'm no expert on iOS design) when you are performing actions such as adding/removing you can replace the tab bar with a tool bar that presents the required actions to the user. But would really need to see an example to see if it's actually going to work.

Answer 3

Yes, for a complex action like that, you should probably use a modal view which will automatically hide the tab bar.

See also apple's Human interface guidelines for when to use modal views on iOS (and the equivalent for iPad): IOS HUman Intface Guidelines see section on Modal Views.