IT- Part A: Discussion. Part B: Reply to two of my peer’s post

I’m trying to study for my Computer Science course and I need some help to understand this question.

Part A:

Describe how you would improve keyboard design on mobile devices that require extensive input, including replacing QWERTY design of the keyboards for more efficient error free input or improving applications that take advantage of direct manipulation to reduce input using the extraction of online data.

Part B:
Reply to two of the peer’s post below. In response to your peers, constructively critique their recommendations and ask relevant clarifying questions.

Peer 1 Post: Looking at an ordinary mobile device there are a lot of notable issues that come along with using the QWERTY keyboard design. Some of the more common issues with the QWERTY keyboard on mobile devices include buttons being too close to each other, not having enough physical room to type, and the overall slowness that comes with typing with only a couple fingers. One method that could eventually help towards replacing the QWERTY keyboard on smartphones is by adding an interface to help implement shortcuts and gestures. For example, Fleksy is a type of keyboard extension that allows the user to perform swipe gestures to delete previous words, use the spacebar, and edit specific keys (Tham, 2017). There are also Swype keyboards which are also becoming a lot more popular on mobile devices as they allow the user to swipe from letter to letter and use direct manipulation to help form the word that they want to type (Tham, 2017). This not only helps to reduce the number of times that the user has to tap the screen, but it also allows the phone to more accurately pick out the word that the user wants to type. Overall, I believe that through the advancement of gestures and better word decision software that we could begin to see more up-to-date keyboard designs in the future.

Peer 2 Post: I would improve keyboard design on mobile devices by incorporating a mixture of design changes. I would replace the QWERTY keyboard with the Dvorak keyboard. The Dvorak keyboard only takes around 52 hours of training for users to reach their average speeds on the standard QWERTY keyboard (Dvorak, 2003). By the end of a study, those same users had their typing speeds increased by 74%. I would also incorporate direct manipulation in the form of word recommendation software that recognizes patterns in the user’s word choice and offers choices for the next word to be typed. For example, a user types out “Are you” often. The software would then recommend “you” after the word “Are” is typed. The last change I would make is to incorporate keyboard gesture software, like Swype. This software allows users to drag their fingers across keys to form words, instead of having to tap each letter individually. For example, a user trying to Swype “car” would place their finger on the ‘c’ of the keyboard and drag their finger to the ‘a’ then ‘r’ which, on the QWERTY keyboard, forms a symbol that looks like the less than symbol; <.