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Performance and User Experience of Touchscreen and Gesture Keyboards in a Lab Setting and in the Wild

Authors:

Per Ola KristenssonAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '15: Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 679 - 688

https://doi.org/10.1145/2702123.2702597

Published: 18 April 2015 Publication History

Abstract

We study the performance and user experience of two popular mainstream mobile text entry methods: the Smart Touch Keyboard (STK) and the Smart Gesture Keyboard (SGK). Our first study is a lab-based ten-session text entry experiment. In our second study we use a new text entry evaluation methodology based on the experience sampling method (ESM). In the ESM study, participants installed an Android app on their own mobile phones that periodically sampled their text entry performance and user experience amid their everyday activities for four weeks. The studies show that text can be entered at an average speed of 28 to 39 WPM, depending on the method and the user's experience, with 1.0% to 3.6% character error rates remaining. Error rates of touchscreen input, particularly with SGK, are a major challenge; and reducing out-of-vocabulary errors is particularly important. Both SGK and STK have strengths, weaknesses, and different individual awareness and preferences. Two-thumb touch typing in a focused setting is particularly effective on STK, whereas one-handed SGK typing with the thumb is particularly effective in more mobile situations. When exposed to both, users tend to migrate from STK to SGK. We also conclude that studies in the lab and in the wild can both be informative to reveal different aspects of keyboard experience, but used in conjunction is more reliable in comprehensively assessing input technologies of current and future generations.

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Cited By

Komninos AFeit ALeiva LLehmann FSimou IMinas DFotopoulos AXenos M(2024)An LLM-driven Transcription Task for Mobile Text Entry StudiesProceedings of the International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia10.1145/3701571.3701586(264-279)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3701571.3701586
Hamid AKristensson P(2024)40 Years of Eye Typing: Challenges, Gaps, and Emergent StrategiesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36555968:ETRA(1-19)Online publication date: 28-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3655596
Lertvittayakumjorn PCai SDou BHo CZhai S(2024)Can Capacitive Touch Images Enhance Mobile Keyboard Decoding?Proceedings of the 37th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3654777.3676420(1-17)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3654777.3676420
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Performance and User Experience of Touchscreen and Gesture Keyboards in a Lab Setting and in the Wild
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. Interaction devices
      1. Touch screens

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '15: Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2015

4290 pages

ISBN:9781450331456

DOI:10.1145/2702123

General Chairs:
Bo Begole
Huawei, USA
,
Jinwoo Kim
Yonsei University, Korea
,
Program Chairs:
Kori Inkpen
Microsoft Research, USA
,
Woontack Woo
KAIST, Korea

Copyright © 2015 Owner/Author.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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SIGCHI: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 18 April 2015

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CHI '15

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CHI '15: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 18 - 23, 2015

Seoul, Republic of Korea

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CHI '15 Paper Acceptance Rate 486 of 2,120 submissions, 23%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

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Cited By

Komninos AFeit ALeiva LLehmann FSimou IMinas DFotopoulos AXenos M(2024)An LLM-driven Transcription Task for Mobile Text Entry StudiesProceedings of the International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia10.1145/3701571.3701586(264-279)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3701571.3701586
Hamid AKristensson P(2024)40 Years of Eye Typing: Challenges, Gaps, and Emergent StrategiesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36555968:ETRA(1-19)Online publication date: 28-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3655596
Lertvittayakumjorn PCai SDou BHo CZhai S(2024)Can Capacitive Touch Images Enhance Mobile Keyboard Decoding?Proceedings of the 37th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3654777.3676420(1-17)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3654777.3676420
Shen JKhaldi KZhou ESurale HKarlson A(2024)Gesture2Text: A Generalizable Decoder for Word-Gesture Keyboards in XR Through Trajectory Coarse Discretization and Pre-TrainingIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2024.345619830:11(7118-7128)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TVCG.2024.3456198
Shen JBoldu RKalla AGlueck MSurale HKarlson A(2024)RingGesture: A Ring-Based Mid-Air Gesture Typing System Powered by a Deep-Learning Word Prediction FrameworkIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2024.345617930:11(7441-7451)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TVCG.2024.3456179
Grubert JWitzani LOtte AGesslein TKranz MKristensson P(2024)Text Entry Performance and Situation Awareness of a Joint Optical See-Through Head-Mounted Display and Smartphone SystemIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2023.330931630:8(5830-5846)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TVCG.2023.3309316
Mutasim ABatmaz AHudhud Mughrabi MStuerzlinger W(2024)The Guided Evaluation MethodInternational Journal of Human-Computer Studies10.1016/j.ijhcs.2024.103317190:COnline publication date: 1-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2024.103317
Komninos AStefanis VGarofalakis J(2023)A Review of Design and Evaluation Practices in Mobile Text Entry for Visually Impaired and Blind PersonsMultimodal Technologies and Interaction10.3390/mti70200227:2(22)Online publication date: 17-Feb-2023
https://doi.org/10.3390/mti7020022
Yi XLiang CChen HSong JYu CLi HShi Y(2023)From 2D to 3DProceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies10.1145/35808297:1(1-25)Online publication date: 28-Mar-2023
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Akpinar EYeşilada YKaragöz P(2023)Effect of Context on Smartphone Users’ Typing Performance in the WildACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/357701330:3(1-44)Online publication date: 10-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3577013
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