Fact · Typing and writing speed
15.28percent
In a controlled study, 14 older adults with no prior gesture typing experience entered text 15.28 percent faster by gesture (swipe) typing than by tap typing.
Checked against its source on October 16, 2026
In the source's own words
“The gesture typing input speed was 15.28% higher than that of tap typing for 14 older adults who had none gesture typing experience in the past”
Why Is Gesture Typing Promising for Older Adults? Comparing Gesture and Tap Typing Behavior of Older with Young Adults, Yu-Hao Lin et al., ASSETS 2018, Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, 2018, Abstract.
Open the original (DOI 10.1145/3234695.3236350)- What it measures
- The study compared gesture and tap typing by older adults with young adults, logging stroke-level interaction data. The participants were 14 older adults who had never used gesture typing, and the result is for their input speed as a group.
- What it does not show
- A group of 14 older adults in one study. It measures speed as a group average, not for each person, and it does not show that younger typists gain the same amount. The abstract does not say how many phrases each person typed or over how long.