Peer-reviewed research
PianoText: Redesigning the Piano Keyboard for Text Entry
Anna Maria Feit and Antti Oulasvirta, Proceedings of the 2014 Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (ACM), 2014 · DOI 10.1145/2598510.2598547
Read the originalRead on October 16, 2026
- What it is
- The authors designed a mapping that types English letters with note sequences on any MIDI keyboard and tested it in two transcription studies. They compare the result with expert QWERTY typists and with an earlier piano-based design.
- How much weight it carries
- Peer-reviewed. The studies used a new layout on a piano, not ordinary QWERTY typing, and the number of participants was small. The result shows that skill can transfer to a new layout, not that pianists type faster on standard keyboards.
Facts taken from this source
- PianoText, a text-entry mapping for piano keyboards, reached an achievable rate of over 80 words per minute in two transcription studies.
“Both show an achievable rate of over 80 words per minute.” (Abstract)
- The authors say the rate their piano layout reached parallels the rates of expert QWERTY typists.
“This parallels the rates of expert Qwerty typists” (Abstract)