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Ask Slashdot: A 'Mavis Beacon' For Teaching Smartphone and Tablet Typing?

Posted by Soulskill on from the start-texting-conversations-with-a-teenager dept.

theodp writes: "Where have you gone, Mavis Beacon? A nation of smartphone and tablet typists could use your help. You've seen people type fast-and-furiously on smartphones and tablets, so you know it can be done, but how exactly do these one- and two-fingered wonders (YouTube video) manage to do so? Is it their reaction time? Technique? Both? Back in the day, touch-typing teachers showed kids the secrets to higher word-per-minute scores on their Smith Coronas. Later, typing tutor software got kids up-to-speed on PCs. So, with over 1 billion smartphones and 200 million or so tablets shipped in 2013, what are the best software and tutorials that teach mobile typing techniques? And what platform specific features — iOS, Android, WP8/Win8, BB — do you find make your mobile typing life a whole lot easier?"

10 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. Practice. by Xacid · · Score: 2

    I can't tell if this is a serious article or not. Practice really is the hardest part of learning to type quickly. I don't think I've seen a kid with a cellphone who couldn't type furiously at it because it's all they've known and they all pretty much have a mobile device these days. Is there really such a demand for such a thing? I really don't see it. What I think the limitation is now is more of an interface problem than a user problem. Consider a good implementation of a swype-like interface versus a touch interface - I can type substantially faster on the swype-like interface after about 2 weeks of practice.

    1. Re:Practice. by CastrTroy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      On a real keyboard, it's all about technique. Putting your fingers where they're supposed to go can speed you up quite a bit. I've known people who practiced a lot with two fingers on ICQ or MSN back in the day, and could probably get close to 30-40 WPM, but that still doesn't compare to someone using good technique. I'm not sure that's there's really any technique you can use on phone keyboards. They all pretty much suck. The best onscreen keyboard I've ever used was on my surface. The arrow keys help a lot when correcting mistakes. But there isn't enough room for such useful features on a small phone screen.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    2. Re:Practice. by Noah+Haders · · Score: 2

      I can ten-finger type on an ipad, the difference is they're no tactile feedback so I need to keep my eye on the keyboard. but the keyboard blocks most of the screen anyway so there's nothing else to look at.

    3. Re:Practice. by milkmage · · Score: 3, Interesting

      try this

      http://fleksy.com/

      I think it's still free. no bullshit, I tried it for literally 10 minutes and was touch typing w/o looking at the keyboard.

      I think it registers your taps in relative position to each other and has predictive correction/selection

      This will probably be my third party keyboard of choice once iOS8 comes out.

  2. The buttons keep getting smaller by Animats · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have this horrible vision of a system where, as you advance from level to level, the touch-screen buttons keep getting smaller.

  3. Steam by jdwoods · · Score: 3, Informative

    "Where have you gone, Mavis Beacon?"

    Steam
    http://store.steampowered.com/...

    --
    -- Jeff Woods
  4. no one can type well on a phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    On a real keyboard, I can destroy the world record speed for phone typing.

    I am a decent typist, but by no means near the top of the pack. I'm good for a tad over 100 WPM if I concentrate on it, and 75 if I'm slacking off. Wikipedia:

    As of 2012, Grace Pak (USA) held the world record of 280 character-per-minute for the fastest typing on a smart phone

    Which can be considered about 56 WPM. That's dreadful. I can do 100 on a keyboard, but really fast typists are up around the 150WPM range, and burst over 200.

    Most people will be much, much slower on a phone than Grace Pak. Personally, I don't know if I can enter text on a phone with even 15% of the performance I can do on a real keyboard.

    It really is a dreadful way to enter text.

  5. I don't want to type faster by meeotch · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...at least not on my goddamn telephone. I don't know how to "thumb type" at all, and oddly, when I'm sitting on the subway and I look around to see all the people furiously hammering away on their phones, I'm not one of them.

    I use Swype (which is irritating in its own way, due to flaky prediction), and it's just usable enough that I can reply to an important email/text, or look something up on the net/maps. If it's not important, it waits until I'm sitting in front of a monitor - or better still, slips off the agenda entirely.

    By all means, improve predictive text / speech recognition / HCI whatever. But why in the hell would I waste my time acquiring a skill that's only useful for burying one's head in (further) neurotic withdrawal from physical reality? It's like learning Esperanto so more people can read your Facebook page.

  6. Nope, it just sucks by FuzzNugget · · Score: 2

    There is no good way to type on a mobile system, they're not meant for content creation beyond the minimum. Not even those click-on keyboards for Windows tablets (all 5 of them) are any good. They're this soft, felty, flat bar of pointlessness with no tactility, that exist purely for style (and not much of it). Maybe you can get a *real* 102-key IBM PC keyboard connected via Bluetooth... but that pretty much defeats the purpose of a mobile device (consumption and feeding you ads)

    The best you'll get is a mish-mash of Swype, pecking and autocorrect, and there's no standard or correct manner of using it. It's just what works for you individually.

    If you to type, get a laptop. The best laptop keyboard you'll ever find is on a ThinkPad of the Core 2 generation, and if you're just typing, that's all you really need.

  7. QWERTY is the problem by reanjr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The issue is that the traditional keyboard layout. It's designed to accept up to 10 fingers of input. Your phone is only designed to accept two. This is reasonable only for the shittiest of typing skills. Most people who are fast at touch screen typing, get that way by learning to accept spelling mistakes, ignore grammar and punctuation, and let auto-correct generate something close to what you really intended. Their goals are completely different from traditional Mavis Beacon like software, because accuracy is practically irrelevant.

    If you have a real desire to learn to type on a touch screen, toss out all of your QERTY keyboard bullshit and use something that was designed for - you know - touch screens (swype is an abomination that takes auto-correct down to the character level).

    https://play.google.com/store/...