A Need-finding Study for Understanding Text Entry in Smartphone App Usage

Abstract: Text entry makes up about one-fourth of the smartphone interaction events, and is known to be challenging and difficult. However, there has been little study about the characteristics of text entry in the context of smartphone app usage. In this paper, we present a mixed-method in-situ study conducted in 2016 with 17 active smartphone users to better understand text entry in smartphone app usage. Our results show 80% of text was entered into communication apps, with different apps exhibiting distinct usage patterns. We found that structured data such as URLs and email addresses are rarely typed but instead are auto-completed or replaced with search, copy-and-paste is rarely used, and sessions of smartphone usage with text entry involve more apps and last longer. We conclude with a discussion about the implications on the development of systems to better support mobile interaction.