Evaluation of thumbwheel text entry methods

ABSTRACT

Text entry becomes increasingly complex as devices shrink in size. This paper presents the findings of a comparison study of two thumbwheel text entry methods for mobile devices. In the first method, the character set (letters, numbers, punctuation) was implemented as a continuous loop. In the second method, characters were arranged in a two-level menu structure. Thumbwheel methods provide a viable and realistic alternative to keyboard, keypad, stylus, or voice text entry on ultra-small mobile devices.

REFERENCES

• 1: I. Scott MacKenzie, KSPC (Keystrokes per Character) as a Characteristic of Text Entry Techniques, Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Mobile Human-Computer Interaction, p.195-210, September 18-20, 2002
• 2: Scott MacKenzie, Mobile text entry using three keys, Proceedings of the second Nordic conference on Human-computer interaction, October 19-23, 2002, Aarhus, Denmark [doi>10.1145/572020.572025]
• 3: MacKenzie, I. and Soukoreff R. Text Entry for Mobile Computing: Models and Methods, Theory and Practice. Human-Computer Interaction 17 (2002), 147--198.
• 4: Peter Tarasewich, Wireless devices for mobile commerce: user interface design and usability, Mobile commerce: technology, theory, and applications, Idea Group Publishing, Hershey, PA, 2003

INDEX TERMS

Keywords:
PDA, handheld devices, mobile, text entry, thumbwheel