News and journalism
The traits of fast typists discovered by analysing 136 million keystrokes
Aalto University, Aalto University, 2018
Read the originalRead on October 16, 2026
- What it is
- The university's press release for the 2018 CHI paper on 136 million keystrokes from an online typing test. It summarizes the study's findings on rollover, error rates and typing speed, with quotes from the researchers.
- How much weight it carries
- Written by the institution that ran the study and checked against the peer-reviewed paper. It is a summary with quotes, so the paper is the primary source for the figures; this page is used only for the researchers' own words.
Facts taken from this source
- The Aalto researchers say an important goal for typing is to stop looking at your fingers.
“An important goal for typing is to learn not to look at fingers.” (Press release, quote from Anna Feit)
- The study's lead researcher says the rollover strategy is possible only for highly practiced letter combinations, and only when performance does not depend on visual attention.
“This strategy is only possible for highly practiced letter combinations and when performance does not rely on visual attention” (Quote from Anna Feit)
- The study's lead researchers say that slower typists make more errors and take a long time to find and correct them, which holds back their speed.
“Slower typists make more errors and require a long time to identify and correct them.” (Press release, quote from Anna Feit)