| Thirty-three California State University, Long Beach, students participated in this study. Participants typed for 2 minutes on each of three keyboard designs (QWERTY, Vertical ALPHA, FITALY). Each participant saw each layout two times. To determine why one keyboard layout might be better, two conditions were used during testing. One condition highlighted the next letter to be typed. The highlighting allowed for the participant's typing ability to be based solely on the keyboard layout, not previous knowledge of letter location. The second condition highlighted no letters, requiring participants to locate each letter on their own. Participants' words per minute (wpm) typed and error percentages were recorded.; Participants typed fastest with the QWERTY layout in the nonhighlighting condition. In the highlighting condition, participants performed equally with the QWERTY and FITALY layouts in terms of wpm typed. Participants committed the most errors with the QWERTY layout, possibly due to a speed/accuracy tradeoff. |
