E. Elson

This study addresses the problem of generating an optimised keyboard layout for single-finger typing on a smartphone. It offers Twitter users a tweet-typing experience that requires less effort and time. Bodies of tweet text for 85 popular Twitter users are used. While existing studies have produced optimisations that may generally benefit a variety of users, this study is unique in the sense that a bespoke optimised keyboard layout is generated for each Twitter user based on their own tweets, thereby uniquely benefiting them more than other users. The optimisation process is based on moving only six letter keys from their positions on the QWERTY keyboard, and therefore strikes an effective balance between the typing efficiency improvements offered by an optimised keyboard layout and the effort required to learn to use it. It is shown that a Twitter user will enjoy a reduction in typing effort of at least 13.4%. The typical user will benefit from a 15.8% reduction, while the highest typing effort reduction is nearly 25%. The method presented in this study could therefore be used in practical ways to offer any Twitter user a uniquely-improved tweeting experience.