In search of effective text input interfaces for off the desktop computing
Shumin Zhai, Per-Ola Kristensson, Barton A. Smith · Interacting with Computers · 2004
It is generally recognized that today's frontier of HCI research lies beyond the traditional desktop computers whose GUI interfaces were built on the foundation of display-pointing device-full keyboard.Many interface challenges arise without such a physical UI foundation.Text writingranging from entering URLs and search queries, filling forms, typing commands, to taking notes and writing emails and chat messages-is one of the hard problems awaiting for solutions in off-desktop computing.This paper summarizes and synthesizes a research program on this topic at the IBM Almaden Research Center.It analyzes various dimensions that constitute a good text input interface; briefly reviews related literature; discusses the evaluation methodology issues of text input; presents the major ideas and results of two systems, ATOMIK and SHARK; and points out current and future directions in the area from our current vantage point.