Configuration Forms – Field Organization Guidelines

[riccardoaran]

Overview

This issue uses the "Add Forecast Provider" modal as the most glaring example,
but the problems described here and the proposed solution should be treated as a
general UI guideline applicable to all configuration forms across the application.

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Current Problems

The configuration forms currently present fields as a flat, unstructured list.
This causes the following usability issues:

1. Redundant labels: every field repeats the same prefix verbatim
   (e.g. Entity Forecast, Unit Forecast), making visual scanning slow and tiring.

2. Useless helper text: each field displays a description that merely
   paraphrases its own label (e.g. label Entity Forecast Power Actual H →
   helper Home Assistant power forecast actual hour entity).
   This adds visual noise without providing any real information.

3. No logical grouping: fields belonging to the same conceptual domain
   (e.g. Power vs. Energy) are not visually separated.

4. Related fields are split apart: unit fields (Unit Forecast *) are
   grouped at the bottom of the list, far from the entity fields
   (Entity Forecast *) they belong to. Users must scroll back and forth
   to associate each entity with its unit of measure.

Proposed Solution

Reorganize form fields by applying the following principles:

• Group fields by domain: power and energy

• Order entries chronologically within each group.

• Place each Unit field immediately next to its corresponding Entity field
  on the same row - following issue Replace free-text unit inputs with segmented controls for measurement units #18

• Field names and helper texts remain unchanged at the moment, will follow another issue about naming.

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Example: "Add Forecast Provider" — CONFIGURATION section

POWER

Time Horizon	Entity	Unit
Actual H	Entity Forecast Power Actual H	Unit Forecast Power Actual H
Next 1H	Entity Forecast Power Next 1H	Unit Forecast Power Next 1H
Next 12H	Entity Forecast Power Next 12H	Unit Forecast Power Next 12H
Next 24H	Entity Forecast Power Next 24H	Unit Forecast Power Next 24H

ENERGY

Time Horizon	Entity	Unit
Actual H	Entity Forecast Energy Actual H	Unit Forecast Energy Actual H
Next 1H	Entity Forecast Energy Next 1H	Unit Forecast Energy Next 1H
Today	Entity Forecast Energy Today	Unit Forecast Energy Today
Tomorrow	Entity Forecast Energy Tomorrow	Unit Forecast Energy Tomorrow
Remaining Today	Entity Forecast Energy Remaining Today	Unit Forecast Energy Remaining Today

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Expected Benefits

• Scroll reduced significantly: from 18 items in a flat list to 2 compact groups.
• Entity and Unit fields are visually paired, no more searching up and down the form.
• Consistent, scannable structure that scales to other forms in the application.
• Cleaner interface with no redundant text.

@sebailfico @markoceri