I'm designing an app that is crowd sourced and therefore needs to be as simple as possible to use. One of the big things about the app is that users can upload things themselves using an input form within the app. All of the forms are native (not using webview). As far as I can see it there are two potions here:
- Stick to the native Android placeholder prompt:
- Or put labels in front of the input fields:
However there are pros and cons for each of these layouts:
Android Native:
Pros
- Familiar
- Takes up less space
- Looks cleaner
Cons
- Grey text maybe harder to read
- Not immediately obvious to a user what they were filling in should they be interrupted
- Hard to mark required fields
Labelled view
Pros
- Clear and obvious
- Text can be made easy to read
- Allows for further information in the input field (like "i.e. green")
- Easy to continue filling in if interrupted
Cons
- Less streamlined
- Seems "messier"
- Will cause problems on smaller screens
This question has some answers (like using top aligned labels) but seems to be more about a webview or cross platform framework, which won't act as a native app does.
I've read articles however they have a lot of conflicting opinions, one author will say to label text fields, another will say that labeling an input field is the worst thing that can be done.
Do we have any stats or figures to show which type of input label Android users prefer?