Windows 8 touch virtual keyboard birth history

As we all know, Windows 8 is optimized for touch-screen devices, and its input method has added touch operations in addition to the traditional mouse and keyboard. How to make Windows 8 achieve more efficient touch input on a new PC? Kip Knox, director of the Microsoft Windows User Experience Program, gave you a detailed explanation today.

The Windows 8 touch keyboard design set the goal at the beginning:

— Quickly enter text, close to the speed of physical keyboard input;

— Avoid errors, And can easily correct mistakes;

— feel comfortable when entering text, whether it is posture or interaction with the device, or with the social environment.

Optimizing user posture and striving for comfort

After conducting an in-depth investigation, Microsoft concluded that people use the three most commonly used gesture devices such as tablets, as shown below. :

1. Hold the device with one hand and operate with the other hand;

2. Put the device on the table and legs, and use both hands to operate the device;

3. Support the device with both hands and input with your thumb.

Microsoft has further studied the range and comfort level that users can hold on a tablet and thumb, as shown below:
Comfort area when thumb is input

This heat map shows people The comfort zone when using the thumb input, the green is very comfortable, the yellow is accessible, and the red is very inconvenient.

Typing on Glass

The next question for Microsoft is how to provide a better input experience on a glass display. However, fortunately, when people put the tablet on the table or on the lap, it is similar to typing on a physical keyboard, unlike typing on a mobile phone.

Of course, the difference between the input on the glass display and the input on the physical keyboard is still very large, you can't get feedback, there is no indication to tell you where the finger should be placed, and there is no feedback to tell you whether Click on the screen. However, the touch screen keyboard also has a physical keyboard, Microsoft's approach is to foster strengths and circumvent weaknesses, play the advantages of the touch screen keyboard, avoiding the shortcomings.

The feedback provided by the touch screen keyboard mainly has two forms. One is that when the button is touched, they will change color, which can be called visual button; the other is to provide a subtle sound. But both have flaws. Take the button, the color change of the button is not safe when the password is entered.

According to eye tracking research conducted by Microsoft Labs, when users become more and more proficient in the use of touch keyboards, they are more looking at the input area than the keyboard itself, just like using a physical keyboard. The same as blind play.

Eye Tracking Heat Map:
Eye Tracking Heat Map

Number Keys

In the Windows 8 virtual keyboard, Microsoft arranges the number keys and symbol keys as shown below.
The numeric key in the virtual keyboard of Windows8

The numeric key area, using 123 on top, instead of 789 on the physical keyboard. This is because the digital layout is currently used on mobile phones, ATMs, remote controls, etc., and people are becoming more familiar with this and comfortable.

On the physical keyboard, when you hold down a key, it will repeat the input. On the virtual keyboard, when you hold down a key, Windows 8 will provide the relevant characters.
WIN8 virtual keyboard with familiar button layout

Test and verification

Microsoft Labs eyeball tracking experiment can clearly see that people's line of sight gradually concentrates to the text input area as time goes by It's not a keyboard, and the input speed is getting faster and faster.
Virtual Keyboard Sight Heat Map

The following figure shows this change. The left picture is a line of sight heat map when a typist just started typing, and the right picture is a line of sight heat map after 90 minutes. It can be clearly seen that the line of sight gradually shifts to the input area and its typing speed is doubled.
Windows 8 Touch Keyboard Test and Verification

Windows 8 Touch Keyboard

The following picture shows the current Windows 8 touch keyboard. The layout of each key is based on a large number of Microsoft research. Seek to provide users with the highest efficiency and most comfortable experience.