Alphabetically biased virtual keyboards are easier to use: layout does matter

ABSTRACT

Virtual keyboard layouts have been optimized for expert users with no consideration of novice users' ease of locating individual keys. This paper presents a new layout produced by means of a Metropolis algorithm with an added alphabetical bias term to the previous Fitts-digraph energy function. At a small cost of expert's performance, the new layout with alphabetical tendency offered 9% improvement to novice user's performance.

REFERENCES

• 1: Lewis, J. R., LaLomia, M. J., & Kennedy, P. J. (1999). Evaluation of Typing Key Layouts for Stylus Input. In Proc. The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 43rd Annual Meeting
• 2: MacKenzie, I. S., Zhang, S. X., & Soukoreff, R. W. (1999). Text entry using soft keyboards. Behaviour & Information Technology, 18, 235-244.
• 3: Norman, D. A., & Fisher, D. (1982). Why alphabetic keyboards are not easy to use: Keyboard layout doesn't much matter. Human Factors, 24(5), 509-519.
• 4: Shumin Zhai , Michael Hunter , Barton A. Smith, The metropolis keyboard - an exploration of quantitative techniques for virtual keyboard design, Proceedings of the 13th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, p.119-128, November 06-08, 2000, San Diego, California, United States [doi>10.1145/354401.354424]

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.1 MODELS AND PRINCIPLES
      H.1.2 User/Machine Systems
          Subjects: Human information processing

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.1 Multimedia Information Systems
          Subjects: Artificial, augmented, and virtual realities
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Style guides

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Human Factors

Keywords:
graphical keyboard, novice usability, soft