Assessing design features of virtual keyboards for text entry.
OBJECTIVE
The present research examined design of a virtual keyboard for text entry with a rotary controller, emphasizing users who differ in age and system experience.


BACKGROUND
Existing research has minimally addressed usage frequency, age, and the effects of display shape and letter arrangement on movement and visual search components of text entry tasks. The present research was conducted to close these gaps.


METHODS
Two experiments were completed to examine younger (18-28 years) and older (60-75 years) adults' movement and visual search capabilities using four keyboard shapes and three keyboard arrangements. In a third experiment examining combined effects on shape design, 32 younger (18-28 years) and 32 older (60-75 years) adults entered words on the two best shapes from the first experiments.


RESULTS
For the movement task, movement time was lowest for shapes with higher shape-controller compatibility. For the visual search task, search time and accuracy were best on the alphabetic arrangement. In the combined task, shape did not significantly influence performance at different levels of practice. Transfers, however, suggested that the shape with salient visual features elicited a text entry strategy for older adults that may promote more consistent performance under occasional usage.


CONCLUSIONS
The studies together demonstrate that keyboard shape is important for efficient performance. Shape-controller compatibility facilitated performance in both age groups. Salient features facilitate performance, especially for older adults. In nearly all cases alphabetic arrangement yielded the best performance.


CONCLUSIONS
Recommendations are provided for virtual keyboard design for different usage frequencies, contexts, and users.
O'Brien
Marita A
MA
School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0170, USA. marita.obrien@gatech.edu
Rogers
Wendy A
WA
Fisk
Arthur D
AD
Richman
Mark
M