| （英） |
A user-friendly Japanese text-entry method for smartwatches is anticipated to enhance the appeal of smartwatches to potential users communicating in Japanese language. Nishida et al. proposed Dial&Flick interface, which allowed users to enter every kana character with a single stroke using the entire touchscreen of the small watch face, measured a mean text-entry speed of 16 character per minute, an error rate of 0.08 error per character and obtained high subjective rating through a pilot study [1]. However, the prototype did not demonstrate the potential fast text entry because of the long strokes needed to enter a character. In this paper, we improved the operability and developed BubbleFlick, which enables fast text entry with short flick operations. Because Google released a Japanese text-entry method based on flick operations on a numeric keypad for smartwatches while we developed BubbleFlick, we conducted a user study comparing BubbleFlick to Google’s latest Japanese text-entry method (KeyboardFlick hereafter). The period of the user study was set to 30 days to clarify how users learn such new text-entry methods on a small touchscreen. As a result, BubbleFlick showed a comparable text-entry speed with KeyboardFlick and half the error rate for the participants who were not using KeyboardFlick on their smartphones. The experiment revealed an important factor which is missing in the current BubbleFlick, providing us an informative hint for further improvement. |