Impact of variable positioning of text prediction in gaze-based text entry

Abstract

Text predictions play an important role in improving the performance of gaze-based text entry systems. However, visual search, scanning, and selection of text predictions require a shift in the user's attention from the keyboard layout. Hence the spatial positioning of predictions becomes an imperative aspect of the end-user experience. In this work, we investigate the role of spatial positioning by comparing the performance of three different keyboards entailing variable positions for text predictions. The experiment result shows no significant differences in the text entry performance, i.e., displaying suggestions closer to visual fovea did not enhance the text entry rate of participants, however they used more keystrokes and backspace. This implies to the inessential usage of suggestions when it is in the constant visual attention of users, resulting in increased cost of correction. Furthermore, we argue that the fast saccadic eye movements undermines the spatial distance optimization in prediction positioning.