Text entry with KeyScretch

Abstract

KeyScretch is a recently proposed text entry method which makes use of gestures to input frequent word chunks on a menu-augmented soft keyboard. Each gesture is initiated on a key and is driven by the key surrounding menu. In this paper we present the performance of an instance of the method with a 4-items menu, specifically designed for the Italian language. The study shows that the method is easy to learn and significantly outperforms the traditional tapping-based method on the QWERTY layout.