A Research on Students’ Preferences for Mobile On-Screen Keyboard

Abstract

In recent years, growing technology has affected people’s communication. Not only speaking and listening but also writing has an important role in communication. Particularly, devices have changed and applications have varied thanks to spreading mobile hardware. The aim of this study is to explore the usage status and preferences of students for mobile on-screen keyboards. In this regard, 20 common keyboard programs offered for IOS and Android platforms were examined. A question pool including various items about the features of these programs was created for the survey to be used. The developed survey consists of 27 items, 26 of which are three-point Likert types and one of which is semi-structured type. During the study, 238 participants completed the survey. Frequencies and percentages were calculated for the collected data, and participants’ preferences were determined. The results conclude that student mostly has used the keyboard for the WhatsApp application. While the most preferred features are local character support, frequently used words, voice message sending, vertical or horizontal usage, key response time, typing with swipe keyboard was the least preferred one by the participants.