

Ask HN: Only one text field allowed on the webapp  - Chirag

Looking closely what I see is Google, twitter and friendfeed have just a one point of interface between the user and application.  What do you think is possible if we are if you are allowed only one input box for your idea.<p>* Google Search: One input field   (Rank 1)<p>* Twitter: One text area           (Rank 11)<p>* Friendfeed: one text area        (Rank 735)
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prodigal_erik
If you have more than one feature and only one field, you will inevitably end
up with conventions for smuggling extra data into it, which users will then
have to learn. E.g., Twitter has @user and #tag, and Google has site:, inurl:,
and cache:.

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rabidsnail
This way we can have our cake and eat it too. New users see only one input,
making it very clear what they're supposed to do, and advanced users can still
do advanced things.

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vyrotek
Well, technically they all have other 'stuff' to help you do whatever it is
with that single box. Google is the only one that doesn't require you to
signup before using it. Digg and HN kind of only have 1 input box.

It definitely is an interesting trend. I've even tried to come up with startup
ideas restricting myself to simple inputs like a single textbox. Sometimes
adding some constraint helps you be more creative.

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STHayden
I would focus less on the input box and more on the task. Each app focuses on
a single task presented with as few options as possible. it's hard to use any
service wrong because there is not much to mess up as a user.

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SoftwareMaven
Try to make a calendar app with only one text field. There is no way "one text
field only" can be applied as a general rule, but just thinking about how you
could apply it will (IMO) make your app better.

What the apps listed above have done is simplified the interface to the _bare_
minimum needed to accomplish the task. Sometimes, that requires 5 text fields,
sometimes 1.

The biggest value of a good user experience designer is in figuring out the
minimal functionality for each step in the application and stringing those
together in ways that make sense.

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nreece
While not a calendar app, I used the "one text field only" methodology on
Weekis - <http://weekis.com> which is a simple week planning tool.

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barmstrong
Interesting...I originally had a more complicated interface on
<http://buyersvote.com/> where people could add/remove items on a list which
would pop out a new text field for each item.

I eventually just made it one big text area and let them do "one per line".

There is a still a sparate field for the title. I don't have any hard data on
whether this change improved engagement or not. But I think as a general rule,
the simpler you can make the UI the more engagement you'll get from first time
users.

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ojbyrne
Not to mention the page we're on now.

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andrewtj
Questioning user interface dogma in your field can have interesting results.
I'm building a DNS service at the moment and having experimented with a few
user interfaces, have found the one I like the most has a single page for
viewing and editing the zone, fixed record names and types, no class or TTL
(at all), and a field for each unit in a records data, rather than the
traditional one data field per record data. It's more limited than other
interfaces but it's also more powerful; have to wait and see whether the
market agrees.

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chunkbot
When you think about it, the command line is the ultimate "single text field"
app.

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enduser
xterm

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antichaos
It all depends on the nature of your web app. Single-text-field UI doesn't
really make sense for, say, an email composition app.

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Raphael
Friendfeed and Twitter each have two. One for search and one for posting.

