KSPC (Keystrokes per Character) as a Characteristic of Text Entry Techniques

  • Authors:
  • I. Scott MacKenzie

  • Affiliations:
  • -

  • Venue:
  • Mobile HCI '02 Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Mobile Human-Computer Interaction
  • Year:
  • 2002

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Abstract

KSPC is the number of keystrokes, on average, to generate each character of text in a given language using a given text entry technique. We systematically describe the calculation of KSPC and provide examples across a variety of text entry techniques. Values for English range from about 10 for methods using only cursor keys and a SELECT key to about 0.5 for word prediction techniques. It is demonstrated that KSPC is useful for a priori analyses, thereby supporting the characterisation and comparison of text entry methods before labour-intensive implementations and evaluations.