What is the best model for Label and Value placement in Android Mobile device

Question

This is one topic I always have debates on with my client. How to put labels and corresponding value for a mobile device running on Android OS. Google has not specified any best practice for the same and hence it comes to the Experience you all had in past.

I tried putting the label on left and value on right. Problem with this approach is that values has to be truncated too soon.

I tried putting label on top with smaller font and different color and value on bottom. Looks good and easy to relate but makes the form bigger.

Please let me know is there is any best practice guidance for this.

Also, is it good practice to show ARROWS indicator for controls where I have to choose from a popup dialog.

Answer 1

@DA01 has already mentioned the main pro and con of the typical label placement on mobile devices with single-column form layouts.

I mainly wanted to note that the Android User Interface Guidelines don't really explictily state a recommended approach. However, if you look at their page on Text Fields, you can see they do place the labels on top of the fields in their sample screenshots: http://developer.android.com/design/building-blocks/text-fields.html

It should be noted though that this type of layout (label on top) may not apply to tablets and larger screen devices where you could have multiple columns of fields on the same page/view (here you would want to consider some of the same rules you do for touch-enabled website form layouts).

Answer 2

Label-on-top has the benefit of taking up less horizontal space, which is a key benefit when we're talking about mobile. It may make the form taller, but scrolling is trivial on a mobile device so don't see that as a major drawback.