Peer-reviewed research

How We Type: Movement Strategies and Performance in Everyday Typing

Anna Maria Feit et al., Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2016 · DOI 10.1145/2858036.2858233

Read the original

Read on October 16, 2026

What it is: Aalto University project page and paper for a lab study of everyday typing on physical keyboards. 30 participants, both touch typists and self-taught typists, did a transcription task while their finger movements were recorded with motion capture and their gaze with eye-tracking glasses.
How much weight it carries: Peer-reviewed CHI paper with detailed motion capture and eye tracking measurements and an open dataset. The sample is small (30 participants, Finnish and English speakers, ages 20 to 55), so the group comparisons have limited statistical power.

Facts taken from this source

The 2016 motion-capture study recruited 30 participants, 17 of them female, aged 20 to 55.
“We recruited 30 participants (17 female) ranging in age from 20–55, with a mean of 31.” (Participants)
In the survey, 43 percent of the study's 30 participants said they had learned and used touch typing.
“Based on the survey, 43% of participants learned and used the touch typing system.” (Background factors)
In the touch typing system, every finger is assigned to one or two columns of the keyboard.
“every finger is assigned to one or two columns of the keyboard” (Frequently Asked Questions, What is the touch typing system?)
Clustering the finger-to-key patterns of the study's typists found 4 techniques for the left hand and 6 for the right.
“we ﬁnd 4 clusters for the left and 6 clusters for the right hand that characterise the typing techniques that people use” (Section on motion analysis)
In touch typing, all fingers rest on their home positions in the middle row and move only up or down toward their keys, so the hands stay in one position.
“All fingers are placed on their home position in the middle row and only move up or down towards their respective keys.” (FAQ, 'What is the touch typing system?')
In touch typing each key is assigned to one finger, and each finger has a home position in the middle row to which it returns after pressing a key.
“each key is assigned to one ﬁnger. Each ﬁnger has a home position in the middle row to which it returns after” (Introduction)
The authors write that touch typing can be learned quickly but needs deliberate training of hundreds of hours to reach the performance rates reported in the literature.
“While the system can be learned rather quickly, it requires deliberate training of hundreds of hours” (Introduction)
Typists without touch-typing training spent about 40 percent of the time they were copying text looking at the keyboard.
“In our data, non-touch typists used 40 % of their time looking at the keyboard, whereas touch typists spent only 20 %.” (Results (eye gaze))
In the same task, typists who had not learned touch typing entered text at an average of 58.93 words per minute.
“and 58.93 WPM and 168.91 ms for non-touch typists” (Typing Performance)
Typists who had not learned touch typing used an average of 6.2 fingers in the transcription task.
“On average, non-touch typists use 6.2 ﬁngers, which is surprisingly close to the 8.5 of touch typists.” (Motion analysis)
In a transcription study, self-taught typists who never learned touch typing reached speeds comparable with touch typists, even when using fewer fingers.
“The most surprising finding is that self-taught typists can achieve performance levels comparable with touch typists, even when using fewer fingers.” (Abstract)
In a transcription study, self-taught typists reached performance levels comparable with touch typists, even when they used fewer fingers.
“The most surprising finding is that self-taught typists can achieve performance levels comparable with touch typists, even when using fewer fingers.” (Abstract)
The motion capture study found three predictors of high performance: a letter is always pressed by the same finger, upcoming keystrokes are actively prepared, and hand movement is kept small.
“Motion capture data exposes 3 predictors of high performance: 1) unambiguous mapping (a letter is consistently pressed by the same finger), 2) active preparation of upcoming keystrokes” (Abstract)
Touch typing originates from the 1890s and is the technique taught in typing classes.
“Touch typing originates from the 1890s and is the technique taught in typing classes.” (Introduction)
Touch typists spent about 20 percent of the time they were copying text looking at the keyboard.
“In our data, non-touch typists used 40 % of their time looking at the keyboard, whereas touch typists spent only 20 %.” (Results (eye gaze))
In the transcription task, touch typists entered text at an average of 57.8 words per minute.
“were found to be 57.8 WPM and 176.39 ms for touch typists” (Typing Performance)
Touch typists used an average of 8.5 fingers in the transcription task.
“On average, non-touch typists use 6.2 ﬁngers, which is surprisingly close to the 8.5 of touch typists.” (Motion analysis)
Touch typists practice finger movements so that they can enter text without looking at the keyboard.
“Touch typists practice these movements to enter text without having to look at the keyboard.” (Introduction)
The speed in words per minute on the How We Type test counts one word as five characters long.
“The speed is given in "words per minute", where one word is defined to be 5 characters long.” (FAQ)
The corrected method in the 2016 Feit study sums the time between keystrokes, leaves out breaks between sentences, and divides by the number of transcribed words.
“For each user we sum up the times between all keystrokes (not including breaks between sentences) and divide it by the overall length of all transcribed sentences given in number of words (any 5 characters).” (Errata)

Pages that rest on this source

Peer-reviewed research

How We Type: Movement Strategies and Performance in Everyday Typing

Anna Maria Feit et al., Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2016 · DOI 10.1145/2858036.2858233

Read the original

Read on October 16, 2026

What it is: Aalto University project page and paper for a lab study of everyday typing on physical keyboards. 30 participants, both touch typists and self-taught typists, did a transcription task while their finger movements were recorded with motion capture and their gaze with eye-tracking glasses.
How much weight it carries: Peer-reviewed CHI paper with detailed motion capture and eye tracking measurements and an open dataset. The sample is small (30 participants, Finnish and English speakers, ages 20 to 55), so the group comparisons have limited statistical power.

Facts taken from this source

The 2016 motion-capture study recruited 30 participants, 17 of them female, aged 20 to 55.
“We recruited 30 participants (17 female) ranging in age from 20–55, with a mean of 31.” (Participants)
In the survey, 43 percent of the study's 30 participants said they had learned and used touch typing.
“Based on the survey, 43% of participants learned and used the touch typing system.” (Background factors)
In the touch typing system, every finger is assigned to one or two columns of the keyboard.
“every finger is assigned to one or two columns of the keyboard” (Frequently Asked Questions, What is the touch typing system?)
Clustering the finger-to-key patterns of the study's typists found 4 techniques for the left hand and 6 for the right.
“we ﬁnd 4 clusters for the left and 6 clusters for the right hand that characterise the typing techniques that people use” (Section on motion analysis)
In touch typing, all fingers rest on their home positions in the middle row and move only up or down toward their keys, so the hands stay in one position.
“All fingers are placed on their home position in the middle row and only move up or down towards their respective keys.” (FAQ, 'What is the touch typing system?')
In touch typing each key is assigned to one finger, and each finger has a home position in the middle row to which it returns after pressing a key.
“each key is assigned to one ﬁnger. Each ﬁnger has a home position in the middle row to which it returns after” (Introduction)
The authors write that touch typing can be learned quickly but needs deliberate training of hundreds of hours to reach the performance rates reported in the literature.
“While the system can be learned rather quickly, it requires deliberate training of hundreds of hours” (Introduction)
Typists without touch-typing training spent about 40 percent of the time they were copying text looking at the keyboard.
“In our data, non-touch typists used 40 % of their time looking at the keyboard, whereas touch typists spent only 20 %.” (Results (eye gaze))
In the same task, typists who had not learned touch typing entered text at an average of 58.93 words per minute.
“and 58.93 WPM and 168.91 ms for non-touch typists” (Typing Performance)
Typists who had not learned touch typing used an average of 6.2 fingers in the transcription task.
“On average, non-touch typists use 6.2 ﬁngers, which is surprisingly close to the 8.5 of touch typists.” (Motion analysis)
In a transcription study, self-taught typists who never learned touch typing reached speeds comparable with touch typists, even when using fewer fingers.
“The most surprising finding is that self-taught typists can achieve performance levels comparable with touch typists, even when using fewer fingers.” (Abstract)
In a transcription study, self-taught typists reached performance levels comparable with touch typists, even when they used fewer fingers.
“The most surprising finding is that self-taught typists can achieve performance levels comparable with touch typists, even when using fewer fingers.” (Abstract)
The motion capture study found three predictors of high performance: a letter is always pressed by the same finger, upcoming keystrokes are actively prepared, and hand movement is kept small.
“Motion capture data exposes 3 predictors of high performance: 1) unambiguous mapping (a letter is consistently pressed by the same finger), 2) active preparation of upcoming keystrokes” (Abstract)
Touch typing originates from the 1890s and is the technique taught in typing classes.
“Touch typing originates from the 1890s and is the technique taught in typing classes.” (Introduction)
Touch typists spent about 20 percent of the time they were copying text looking at the keyboard.
“In our data, non-touch typists used 40 % of their time looking at the keyboard, whereas touch typists spent only 20 %.” (Results (eye gaze))
In the transcription task, touch typists entered text at an average of 57.8 words per minute.
“were found to be 57.8 WPM and 176.39 ms for touch typists” (Typing Performance)
Touch typists used an average of 8.5 fingers in the transcription task.
“On average, non-touch typists use 6.2 ﬁngers, which is surprisingly close to the 8.5 of touch typists.” (Motion analysis)
Touch typists practice finger movements so that they can enter text without looking at the keyboard.
“Touch typists practice these movements to enter text without having to look at the keyboard.” (Introduction)
The speed in words per minute on the How We Type test counts one word as five characters long.
“The speed is given in "words per minute", where one word is defined to be 5 characters long.” (FAQ)
The corrected method in the 2016 Feit study sums the time between keystrokes, leaves out breaks between sentences, and divides by the number of transcribed words.
“For each user we sum up the times between all keystrokes (not including breaks between sentences) and divide it by the overall length of all transcribed sentences given in number of words (any 5 characters).” (Errata)