Survey says: iPhone texters more mistake-prone

According to information from User Centric, a usability consulting company, those who spend time text messaging on their iPhone make more typos than those on phones with either hardware keypads or traditional phone keypads. From our friends at the IDG News Service:

The researchers found that while iPhone users entered text as fast as their counterparts, they made significantly more texting errors. iPhone users made 5.6 errors per message, while keyboard users made 2.1 mistakes per message and numeric phone typers made 2.4 mistakes.

The sample size for the survey was a mere 20 people per group, so I’m not sure just how much we can draw from these results. The study also claims that iPhone users don’t improve with experience, with novice users encountering the same number of mistakes as more experienced users.

Now I don’t know about you, but I find that my efficiency at tapping out messages varies quite a bit, depending on whether I’m distracted, using one hand versus two hands, and even by whether my fingers are cold or not. Sometimes I can type very quickly, and completely mistake-free—more often than not, I make fewer mistakes if I remember to trust the built-in text correction, which is quite good.

Despite the conclusions of the survey, the data they’ve collected is pretty interesting. For example: the keys on the outside edge of the keyboard (Q, A, Z, P, L, and M) had the highest rate of being hit correctly, while keys next to the most common letters (those surrounding E, T, A, O, and I) had the biggest chance of being hit by accident. I often notice myself hitting keys by accident, it’s true, though it’s only really annoying when it’s, say, the delete or return key.

What say you, iPhoners? Have you had problems cranking out the text messages? Do you make a lot of mistakes? Do most people even care if they make mistakes in text messages? I mean, how hard is it to spell LOL ROFL C YA L8R?

Category: Musings

Posted by Dan Moren on Nov 14 2007, 11:44 AM ET

A study which claimed that it takes twice as long to send a text message on Apple's iPhone than on other handsets has been branded "ridiculous" and "rubbish" by iPhone users.

Chicago-based usability consultancy User Centric said that its research showed that iPhone users could only compose text messages at half the speed achieved on a conventional Qwerty or numeric phone keyboard.

The study sparked outrage, with an online message from vnunet.com reader 'Ron' claiming that the research is "bull****".

"I have been using both JiveTalk and Mundu for the iPhone and I can text faster than I ever did on any of my prior PDA phones - the Treo 650 and the Verizon XV6700 - with slide-out keyboard," he said.

"The auto-correction feature makes it amazingly accurate and faster than with any other portable keyboard."

Reader 'Rick' pointed out that a girl who sent 30,000 text messages in one month, as she found when her 300 page AT&T bill arrived in the post, did not seem to have had a problem texting with the iPhone.

Another vnunet.com reader, 'Amanda', said that the iPhone was so easy to text on that "even my clumsy oaf of a network admin can text faster on the iPhone" and that the research was "just anti-iPhone bias".

Meanwhile, opinion was split over Apple's iconic device in the results of vnunet.com's online poll.

While 41 per cent of voters indicated that they would buy the device, 37 per cent wrote it off as "an overpriced pile of junk".

However, the number buying the phone would be boosted by a further 11 per cent if Apple fixed its initial teething problems.

I found this at

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2196942/iphone-texting-study-sparks