Text entry using soft keyboards

Text entry rates are explored for several variations of soft keyboards. We present a model to predict novice and expert entry rates and present an empirical test with 24 subjects. Six keyboards were examined: the Qwerty, ABC, Dvorak, Fitaly, JustType, and telephone. At 8-10 wpm, novice predictions a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behaviour & information technology 1999-01, Vol.18 (4), p.235-244
Main Authors: Mackenzie, I. Scott, Zhang, Shawn X., Soukoreff, R. William
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Exact sciences and technology
Information and communication sciences
Information and communication technologies
Information science. Documentation
Information technologies: storage media, equipment
Sciences and techniques of general use
Technical characteristics
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Summary:Text entry rates are explored for several variations of soft keyboards. We present a model to predict novice and expert entry rates and present an empirical test with 24 subjects. Six keyboards were examined: the Qwerty, ABC, Dvorak, Fitaly, JustType, and telephone. At 8-10 wpm, novice predictions are low for all layouts because the dominant factor is the visual scan time, rather than the movement time. Expert predictions are in the range of 22-56 wpm, although these were not tested empirically. In a quick, novice test with a representative phrase of text, subjects achieved rates of 20.2 wpm (Qwerty), 10.7 wpm (ABC), 8.5 wpm (Dvorak), 8.0 wpm (Fitaly), 7.0 wpm (JustType), and 8.0 wpm (telephone). The Qwerty rate of 20.2 wpm is consistent with observations in other studies. The relatively high rate for Qwerty suggests that there is skill transfer from users' familiarity with desktop computers to the stylus tapping task.
ISSN:0144-929X
1362-3001
DOI:10.1080/014492999118995