Text Input on a Smartwatch QWERTY Keyboard: Tap vs. Trace

ABSTRACT

This study examines text input performance on a smartwatch using tap and trace input methods on a standard QWERTY keyboard (Swype^TM). Participants were either experts or novices to the tracing technique on their smartphone. No users had experience typing on a smartwatch. Participants were able to type at speeds comparable to, or exceeding, those reported in the literature for smartphones and small screen devices. Both novices and tracing experts typed faster overall using the trace input method than the tap method and experts typed the fastest using trace (37 WPM). Word error rates were also comparable to those reported for smartphone text input. These results suggest that using a standard QWERTY keyboard that allows both tap and trace for text input is a viable option on a smartwatch.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Colton J. Turner

Colton J. Turner is a doctoral graduate student in the Human Factors program in the Department of Psychology at Wichita State University. His research interests are in the fields of mobile device text input, smartwatch usability, user experience, applied human–computer interaction and driver distraction.

Barbara S. Chaparro

Barbara S. Chaparro has a PhD in Experimental Psychology from Texas Tech University. She is the coordinator of the Human Factors doctoral program at Wichita State University and the Director of the Software Usability Research Lab (www.surl.org). Her research is in applied human–computer interaction, usability evaluation, and user satisfaction.

Jibo He

Jibo He has a PhD degree in Engineering Psychology from University of Illinois and Bachelor degrees from Peking University. He is the director of the Human Automation Interaction Lab at Wichita State University. His research interests include human factors, driver distraction, eye movement, human–machine interaction, usability, and mobile devices.