Analyzing Turkish F and Turkish E keyboard layouts using learning curves

TL;DR

This study empirically compares Turkish F and E keyboard layouts, revealing that F-layout enables faster typing and lower physical demand, despite similar learning progress, and discusses reasons for its limited adoption.

Contribution

First empirical comparison of Turkish F and E keyboard layouts using user experiments, providing evidence on performance and comfort differences.

Findings

F-layout results in faster typing completion times

F-layout has lower physical demand scores

No significant difference in learning percentage between layouts

Abstract

The F-layout was introduced in 1955 and eventually enforced as a national standard as a replacement to the popular QWERTY keyboard layout in Turkey. In a more recent work, another alternative (E-layout) was developed for Turkish language and argued to be faster and more comfortable than the F-layout. However, there has not been any empirical evidence favouring any of these layouts so far. To fill this research gap in the literature, we have employed a hybrid model and conducted both between-subjects and within-subjects user experiments with twelve freshmen majoring in computer engineering. The experimental results show that there is no significant difference between learning percentage of these two layouts but the completion time of typing a trial passage with the F-layout is significantly lower than the E-layout. The F-layout has also a significantly lower physical demand score, as revealed by the subjective assessments of participants. Based on our user survey data, we also discuss some possible reasons of F-keyboard limited prevalence among Turkish users.