Virtual Sliding QWERTY: A new text entry method for smartwatches using Tap-N-Drag

• We developed Virtual Sliding QWERTY (VSQ) for enhancing text entry tasks with smartwatches.
• For the verification of VSQ, we also conducted usability tests.
• As a result, VSQ showed an average of 11.9 words per minute which was higher than previous studies.

A smaller screen of smartwatches compare to conventional mobile devices such as PDAs and smartphones is one of the main factors that makes users to input texts difficult. However, several studies have only proposed a concept for entering texts for smartwatches without usability tests while other studies showed low text input performance. In this study, we proposed a new text entry method called Virtual Sliding QWERTY (VSQ) which utilizes a virtual qwerty-layout keyboard and a ‘Tap-N-Drag’ method to move the keyboard to the desired position. In addition, to verify VSQ we conducted a usability test with 20 participants for a combination of 5 key sizes and 4 CD-gains. As a result, VSQ achieved an average of 11.9 Words per Minute which was higher than previous studies. In particular, VSQ at 5 × 5 key size and 2×, or 3× CD-gain had the highest performance in terms of the quantitative and qualitative usability test.