Each chip must be removable without disturbing the others

What it is

Each committed tag is its own object. Removing one must not dismantle the row beside it, and must not wipe the half-word still being typed. Independent chip removal gives every chip a tappable dismiss; backspace, only when the current word is empty and focus is in the slot, may remove at most the last chip, and that removal is undoable. The issue is the grain of teardown, not how a new chip is committed, and not how a crowd of chips is laid out.

Why it happens

People usually want “not that one in the middle,” not “peel from the end to the target.” Without per-chip dismiss, they backspace in a chain, sacrifice every chip before the target, then retype. If backspace eats the previous chip while the current word is not yet gone, the in-progress word and committed chips are treated as one string, and grain is worse. On touch, chips are small and dismiss smaller; a hit on the chip body may edit the whole chip, a near miss may hit a neighbor. Independent removal makes each chip a small object with a close control, so a set operation is “minus one,” not “rewrite the suffix.”

Where it stops holding

A single-tag field (only one chip allowed) makes removal emptying; there is no “the rest.” Read-only tags are not input; dismiss should not appear. Keyboard users need focus onto a chip then Delete, not only the tiny close on each chip. If delete submits to the server at once and cannot be undone, a miss is expensive; remove locally first and allow undo.

Applying it

• Give every chip a large enough close; a press removes only that chip.
• Backspace: delete the uncommitted word first; only then the last chip, with undo.
• Do not treat a press on the chip body as delete; that should edit or select.
• Verify by dismissing a middle chip; left and right should stay. Then backspace on an unfinished word; it must not eat the previous chip first. On touch, a thumb on close must not dismiss a neighbor.

Related

• Within the group: E2.20.1 Free tagging must handle duplicates and near-spellings · E2.20.2 The delimiter that commits a tag must be stated · E2.20.4 Many tags need a wrapping or stacking layout
• Adjacent: E2.17 Clear buttons in fields · E3.08 Chip selection
• Search terms: independent chip removal · token delete · backspace chip