Texting while walking: an evaluation of mini-qwerty text input while on-the-go

Abstract

Interacting with mobile technology while in-motion has become a daily activity for many of us. Common sense leads one to believe that texting with a mini-qwerty keyboard while mobile can be dangerous since users are distracted and not paying attention to the environment. Previous studies have found that mobility negatively impacts text entry performance for novice participants typing on virtual keyboards on touch screen mobile phones. We investigate the impact of mobility on expert users' ability to quickly and accurately input text on mobile phones equipped with fixed-key mini-qwerty keyboards. In total, 36 participants completed 600 minutes of typing on mini-qwerty keyboards (300 minutes training up to expertise) in three mobility conditions (seated, standing, and walking) generating almost 4,000,000 characters across all conditions. Surprisingly, we found that walking has a significant impact on expert typing speeds but does not significantly impact expert accuracy rates.