Research Article

Usability Evaluation of Optimized Single-Pointer Arabic Keyboards Using Eye Tracking

Table 1

Summary of some of the existing studies on the optimization of single-pointer keyboard.

Ref.YearLanguageOptimizationUsability evaluation
Algo.Objective(s)ParticipantsTask(s)Criteria

[19]2006EnglishSAMovement timeNone
[20]2011EnglishCSA, PSOKey accessibility, posture comfort, keystrokes, word clashes6 participants, familiar with QWERTYTyping an article ( words) 5 timesParticipants feedback
[21]2016EnglishGA + TOPSISFlow distance, learning percentage, typing speedNone
[6]2018English2 EDAs: UMDA, PBILA.Movement time2 participants: one familiar with QWERTY, one 10-year-old childTyping a small poemTyping time
[8]2014ArabicGA, SADistance between letters, hit direction, row weightsNone
[5]2016PolishGA, SADistance between letters, hit direction, row weightsNone
[22]2009English, French, Italian, SpanishLS, SA, TS, VNS, FANTMovement timeNone
[23]2020English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, BilingualILSMovement timeNone
This paper2021ArabicSAMovement time and hit direction12 participants, 18–33 years old, familiar with Arabic keyboardTyping 4 sentences using 3 different layoutsEye-tracking metrics, effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction

SA: Simulated Annealing; GA: Genetic Algorithm; CSA: Cyber Swarm Algorithm; PSO: Particle Swarm Optimization; TOPSIS: Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution; EDA: Estimation of Distribution Algorithm; UMDA: Univariate Marginal Distribution Algorithm; PBILA: Population-Based Incremental Learning Algorithm; LS: Local Search; TS: Tabu Search; VNS: Variable Neighborhood Search; FANT: Fast ANT; ILS: Iterated Local Search.