Arrow2edit: A Technique for Editing Text on Smartphones.

We present Arrow2edit, a technique for efficient text editing on smartphones, based on the use of arrow soft buttons. Arrow2edit, after the user touches the text to place the cursor, displays keys with directional arrows that allow the user to move the cursor. The technique also allows selection/cut/copy/paste/undo operations using additional dedicated buttons. The technique was compared, in a first experiment, to the standard Android technique. The results show that the Arrow2edit is in general more efficient than the standard Android technique, especially when the font size is small, with a 24% advantage on the overall time required. In a second experiment, Arrow2edit was compared to two different input methods: a soft keyboard with arrow keys and keys for select/cut/copy/paste operations, and a popular soft keyboard-based method that allows the cursor to be moved after a long press on the space bar. Also in this case the experimental results show that Arrow2edit is advantageous in terms of efficiency, but not in user preference.