Bimanual Interaction on the Microsoft Office Keyboard

INTERACT '03: IFIP TC13 International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction |

Published by IOS Press

The Office Keyboard (on store shelves in major markets since October, 2001) seeks to enhance efficiency through unique application of bimanual interaction principles. The left hand performs navigation tasks (including view scrolling, application switching, and internet forward & back) as well as editing commands (Cut, Copy, and Paste) that are typically part of a compound mouse-keyboard action. The Office Keyboard’s Cut, Copy, Paste, and Application toggle dedicated left-side keys are evaluated. Results in three different experimental task contexts show that the Office Keyboard is significantly faster than, or statistically equivalent to, the mouse or keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl-X, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V and Alt+Tab) for all outcome measures that we collected. Most participants preferred the dedicated left-side keys to the other methods tested.