How to design finger input of Chinese characters: A literature review

•We conduct a comprehensive literature review on finger input of Chinese characters.•We develop seven design guidelines on properties of human finger for Chinese handwriting system.•We develop eight design guidelines on characteristics of Chinese characters for Chinese handwriting system.

A comprehensive literature review is conducted on the considerations of the human finger and Chinese character in finger interaction for Chinese input. The results of this study indicate the importance and influences of characteristics of the human finger and Chinese characters on Chinese handwriting. Moreover, fifteen design guidelines are developed based on the literature review to improve the Chinese handwriting performance (i.e. input time, accuracy, error rate, mental workload, satisfaction and physical fatigue) and subjective ratings. Seven guidelines are developed regarding properties of the human finger (i.e. finger size, contact area, motor skill, texture perception and input position). Another eight guidelines are related to characteristics of Chinese characters (i.e. direction, structure, script style, complexity and semantics). These results are in great help of improving the Chinese handwriting performance and user experience. The guidelines are going to help product designers develop a user-friendly Chinese handwriting system.Relevance to industryThe literature review results give the theoretical support on developing a user-friendly Chinese handwriting system. Fifteen practical design guidelines based on the literature review are beneficial to improving handwriting performance and subjective ratings and consequently product design.