Long form in dialog for iOS iphone?

Question

My current project is to translate an existing Android gingerbread style app design to an iOS7 iPhone design.

The Android app utilizes various dialogs (such as the one here) with embedded forms. These are not forms within new views but forms within modals.

Some of these forms can be long and require a user scroll (and scrollbar) to view the entire form. In addition they lock user interaction down to the modal unless a CANCEL or valid SUBMIT.

The Android implementation is not ideal from a UX perspective, as it does not adhere to iOS Master/Detail navigational model. However, I may be stuck with this pattern and I'm interested in the feasibility of it's execution in iOS. Can these iOS alert dialogs (or something comparable) handle long forms? What if any experience/tips could you share in building an experience using this pattern?

Answer 1

No. iOS alert dialog can't show large views. Shoving large views into a modal alert dialog is just bad UX regardless of the platform. Thus the restriction is on purpose to prevent devs from doing so. Think about how in JS the alert() doesn't allow a form shoved in it either.

Master-Detail / Hierarchal navigation is one of many patterns in iOS UX, and it's also the same in Android as well. Your form should be in a separate view because it is a separate feature.

*Note: Please for the love of your users, resize and align all those textboxes and labels. It just takes a minute. And you got the Save and Cancel buttons in the wrong positions. Save is a 'forward action' and should be on the right. See all the various modal dialogs through Android and Google apps for reference.

Attention to detail is extremely important to indicating quality of software.