A Comparison of three Methods of Character Entry on Pen-Based Computers

Methods for entering text on pen-based computers were compared with respect to speed, accuracy, and user preference. Fifteen subjects entered text on a digitizing display tablet using three methods: hand printing, QWERTY-tapping, and ABC-tapping. The tapping methods used display-based keyboards, one with a QWERTY layout, the other with two alphabetic rows of 13 characters. ABC-tapping had the lowest error rate (0.6%) but was the slowest entry method (12.9 wpm). It was also the least preferred input method. The QWERTY-tapping condition was the most preferred, the fastest (22.9 wpm), and had a low error rate (1.1%). Although subjects also liked hand printing, it was 41% slower than QWERTY-tapping and had a very high error rate (8.1%). The results suggest that character recognition on pen-based computers must improve to attract walk-up users, and that alternatives such as tapping on a QWERTY soft keyboard are effective input methods.