Effects of interaction style and screen size on touchscreen text entry performance: An empirical research

Abstract

In this paper we investigate text entry performance for mobile touchscreen devices with emulated QWERTY keyboards, with special emphasis on interaction style and screen size. When addressing interaction style, we are referring to the five most common combinations of hands postures and device orientations while executing text entry tasks. Both single-finger and two-thumb methods for typing in portrait and/or landscape layout are considered. As for screen sizes, several classes of popular mobile devices are examined, specifically smartphones and tablets with smaller and larger form factor. In addition, the mobile device emulator is included in the study, in order to report the comparative analysis of text entry with an actual device and its emulation-based counterpart. The touchscreen desktop monitor was used so as to provide touch input for the device emulator. Results obtained from experimental testing, supported by thorough data analysis, provide a valuable insight into the user behavior when typing on touchscreens. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.