Short-Type: A Behavioral Analysis of Typing and Text Entry." Human Factors

This study evaluated a typing task ivliicli incorporated an encoding operation. This tech-nique, called “sliort-type. ” takes advantage o f word repetition to reduce the number of key-strokes required to transcribe doctiineiits. Four typists were taught alistofabbreviations for frequently occurring words. Their subsequent task was to enter docriinents into a computer via a standard keyboard. Each time a word from the training list ivas detected, the corres-ponding abbreviation ivas to be typed in its place. I t was found that: ( I) over 93 % of the to-be-abbreviated words were detected by the typists; (2) the error rate in selecting and typing abbreviations ivas no greater than the error rate in typing words which were not abbreviated: and (3) the substitution process did not adversely affect the keystroke rate. I t was concluded’ that short-type is a practical technique in improving typing performance