Shoddy Study "Proves" iPhone Keyboard Sucks

Man! Who isn't using the iPhone to drum up a little publicity? Now User Centric, a "user experience" consultancy, is taking a pop at the iPhone's virtual keyboard. A study carried out by the company shows definitively that using the no-key keyboard is twice as slow as using a physical QWERTY 'board.

Here's how the "scientific" study was carried out. First, a large sample size was gathered: a whole 20 people. Ten were QWERTY users, ten multi-tappers, and all experienced text-messegers. None had used an iPhone before, and all were give one single minute to get used to the iPhone input.

That's right – one minute. So this test shows that a tiny amount of people could type faster on their own phone than on a brand new device they had never used before. Amazing. I wonder if they ever tried moving from a Nokia to a Motorola, an exercise in true frustration?

Funnily enough, one of the problems reported by test subjects has already been solved:
Most participants felt that their fingertips were too large for the iPhone's touch keyboard. Try whittling your thumbs.

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/08/shoddy-study-pr.html