Good UX patterns for data entry on a tablet

Users of my product are farmers and farmhands, and will be entering lots of different types of data about their cows via tablets (likely in portrait mode) whilst out in the field. How can I optimise the data entry experience so that it's as quick and easy as possible? Stuff I have in mind:

  • (obvious) Making everything reasonably big, especially buttons
  • (obvious) Appropriate tablet keyboard layout for data type (number/date/text)
  • Multi step forms instead one long scrolling ones (so they only have to consider one thing at a time, cognitive load, yada yada)

What else can I do? I'm particularly worried about the fact that each data entry flow will begin with them searching for the particular cow that they want to enter data for. They will be able to search either by the cow's name or the cow's ID. I currently have a live search box showing the 3 closest matching results underneath like so:

Data entry flow step 1 - selecting the animal

Is there any way I can optimise this for tablets?

Also for the scenarios in which a number is being entered (e.g. recording the cow's weight), I'm planning to have a number input box as well as a slider that can be used to increase/decrease the value of the input - is this good UX?

Thanks

Tags: