Different keyboard layouts

There are a number of different keyboard layouts you could use for text entry, and several of these are supplied in the demo grids with The Grid and WordWall.

There is nothing special about these keyboard grids - you can recreate, modify (or delete) them as you see fit! It is very unlikely that the exact configuration you require will have been created already, so make a copy of an existing one and modify it to your needs.

Combine common letter pairs

There are two pairs of letters that are very often used together, 'qu' and 'th', and having these pairs in the same cell reduces the required number of selections.

Replacing 'q' with 'qu' means that if a 'q' is required on its own, the user must select 'qu' and then backspace, but this is a rare occurence.

Replacing 't' with 'th' is less convenient, but an additional 'th' cell could be added next to 't'.

Arranging the keys for the direct input

For direct input with a mouse (or headmouse, touch screen or other pointer device) the primary concern is a finding the keys easily. If the user is familiar with a qwerty keyboard, then this may be a good layout to use. Alternatively, and alphabetical order may be easier for them

Arranging the keys for scanning

Scanning starts at the top left, so placing the most common letters near the top left corner makes typing quicker. If you use block scanning, you can also arrange common characters near the top left of each block.

Arranging the keys for audible scanning

Users requiring audible prompts may find that arranging the keys in logical rows makes finding keys easier. When scanning rows, the first cell in each row is read aloud, so this cell acts as a 'description cell' for the row. In the example to the right, these are the vowels a, e, i, o, u, and then 'space' (to indicate the punctiation row) and 'back' (to indicate the jumps).

There is no prediction on the sample of this grid becuase the audible scanning reads the first cell in each row when scanning rows. You can help the audible prompting by providing careful descriptions of cells (e.g. the 'qu' cell has 'q u' as the description to make the letters pronounce separately).

Smart punctuation

The punctuation can be done in one of two ways: 'smart' punctuation or normal punctuation. If you enter '{.}' rather than '.' as the type text for a cell, it will do a 'smart full stop'. This means that the last space will be erased (if there was one), a space will be added afterwards and shift will be put on for the next character. Smart versions are available for: full stop, comma, question, exclamation, semi-colon and colon punctuation marks.

The need for numbers

Most people will not type in numbers very often, so these are usually relegated to a secondary grid. If you are entering numerical data or using a calculator this is usually more useful anyway. Note that the dot (full stop) on a numerical grid should not be 'smart'.

Having decided how to arrange your keys, you need to consider some of the other useful cells to include. Some of the common ones are listed in this article. 

Here are some keyboards we have designed

Qwerty keyboard: a compact, familiar style.