Building Beautiful, Functional Text Fields in SwiftUI
3 min readNov 5, 2024
As iOS developers, crafting a delightful user experience is one of our top priorities. One critical UI element we often need to get right is the humble text field—a deceptively simple component that can make or break an app's feel.
In this article, I’ll explain a custom SwiftUI text field component that solves common problems and elevates the user experience.
The Problem with Standard Text Fields
Apple’s standard TextField SwiftUI works great for basic text input needs. However, it lacks some of the polish and functionality that can make a text field shine:
- Floating Label: A common UI pattern is to have the field’s label “float” above the input when the user starts typing. This provides a clean, uncluttered look and helps orient the user.
- Animated Styling: Subtly animating the text field’s appearance when it gains or loses focus can make the interaction more responsive and delightful.
- Customized Behavior: Sometimes, you need to tweak the default behavior—for example, programmatically toggling the keyboard focus state when the label is tapped.
To address these needs, let’s dive into a custom CustomTextField implementation.
