Design of an alternative keyboard layout for the Greek language

Abstract

This study constitutes a first attempt to design an alternative keyboard layout for the Greek language that satisfies ergonomic requirements. The criticisms leveled at the standard keyboard layout, the opportunities offered by recent changes in the technology of editing devices, and the increasing number of new keyboard users are among the reasons justifying this study. Ten ergonomie requirements were considered during the design process. The designed keyboard layout was compared to the standard Greek keyboard by two different evaluations. The first evaluation, which was analytical, was based on the ergonomie requirements and the frequencies of letters and digrams in the Greek language. The second evaluation, which was experimental, was aimed at comparing the typing performance as well as the ease of learning of the two keyboard layouts. The results showed that: (1) the designed keyboard layout satisfies the ergonomie requirements much better, and (2) there were no significant differences in the typing pe...