On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 3:51 PM, majid dadgar <[email protected]> wrote: > *1 -* *what are the approaches/ methods towards the most optimized lay-out > on key-boards?*(in other languages) > According to the nature of the language and alphabet, for example to > minimize cognitive load, to enhance typing speed, to distribute letters on > keyboards equally for both hands, ... .It would be a stage before the user > test.e.g. that if I have to find the 100 most frequent words, what will be > the approach to identify those words?
Testing keyboard layout is difficult ... not in the actual task (simply develop a set of normal text entry tasks for your device) but in getting participants who don't know on particular layout. I'm going to assume you are designing for a mobile device. Why? Because I get about 5 inventors per year asking me to endorse their new mobile text input. And they're going about it the wrong way. It's not my input they need; they need to invest $5m and 3 years in business development. Why else do I assume mobile? Because keyboard layout is far more variable. Some keyboard inventors analyze letter combinations occurring in the language, and lay out keys accordingly. FrogPad was designed in this way. Optimized layout based on letter frequency or common words does mean you'll have a large learning curve in the resulting design. So you'll need to add a training task to your user studies. Don't just use the most common 100 words. Use the power of a computer, use the most common 10,000 words but weigh them by frequency of use. Add in common abbreviations in the language, decide whether you want to actively support slang, and don't forget NAMES. Consider whether a key might enter multiple keystrokes, like "Al " to make typing "Al Jazeera" that much easier. Layout isn't the only issue. Key size is huge. If you have limited space you have to decide whether to use very small keys or larger keys that do similar things. Don't require participants to learn more than one new layout. You'll have extra errors as a result; your results won't mean anything. ~~~~ Barbara Ballard [email protected] 1-785-838-3003 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
