Design of smartphone 9-key keyboard based on spelling rule of pinyin

Abstract

Currently, the layout of the smartphone 9-key keyboard is that 26 Latin letters are sequentially distributed on the 1st to the 9th keys according to the alphabetical order, which is irrelevant to the spelling rule of pinyin. This paper, based on the study and conclusion of the spelling rule of pinyin, designs a layout mode of the 9-key keyboard that can meet the Chinese input demand by combining the analysis of usability of different areas of the smartphone interactive interface. Moreover, the new layout mode is compared with the existing keyboard layout by comparing the finger movement distance during Chinese input, and the Chinese input efficiency of the new layout mode is verified. This paper provides new possibility for realizing diversification of the human-computer input interface of the mobile terminal in the future and better meeting the demand of Chinese input users, especially the elderly users.