Touch Me , Hear Me , Feel Me : Feedback Preferences for Mobile Text Entry

Many mobile devices use touchscreens for text entry. They also provide vibration and audio feedback to simulate interaction with a physical keyboard. To facilitate design decisions of new mobile text entry methods, we conducted a survey and a user study to measure user’s feedback preference and the effect of feedback modes on typing performance. We found that nearly half of respondents prefer no aural or haptic feedback. In our study, feedback mode had no statistically significant effect on entry speed or accuracy. However, comments made by users suggest that feedback preference is due to situational factors, rather than performance considerations.