Fact · Typing and writing speed
10words per minute
In a field study that Palin and colleagues cite, people were almost 10 words per minute faster after practice with a gesture keyboard than with tapping.
Checked against its source on October 16, 2026
In the source's own words
“When assessed outside the lab, people performed almost 10 WPM faster after practice than using tapping-based input”
How do People Type on Mobile Devices? Observations from a Study with 37,000 Volunteers, Kseniia Palin et al., Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI 2019), 2019, Related work.
Open the original- What it measures
- Reported second-hand here. The paper cites the original field study for this figure.
- What it does not show
- We did not open the cited field study, so the figure is as reported by Palin and colleagues. It describes practiced users, not beginners.