Cited by 70Usability and User Interface DesignInteractive and Immersive DisplaysNatural Language Processing Techniques

On Suggesting Phrases vs. Predicting Words for Mobile Text Composition

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Arnold, Kenneth C., Gajos, Krzysztof Z., Kalai, Adam T.·2016·Proceedings of the 29th Annual Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology

Abstract

A system capable of suggesting multi-word phrases while someone is writing could supply ideas about content and phrasing and allow those ideas to be inserted efficiently. Meanwhile, statistical language modeling has provided various approaches to predicting phrases that users type. We introduce a simple extension to the familiar mobile keyboard suggestion interface that presents phrase suggestions that can be accepted by a repeated-tap gesture. In an extended composition task, we found that phrases were interpreted as suggestions that affected the content of what participants wrote more than conventional single-word suggestions, which were interpreted as predictions. We highlight a design challenge: how can a phrase suggestion system make valuable suggestions rather than just accurate predictions'

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Crossref · 10.1145/2984511.2984584

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  • A system that suggests phrases rather than words is more likely to be perceived as a collaborator and content contributor by users.

    “There is evidence that a system that suggests phrases rather than words [5] is more likely to be perceived as a collaborator and content contributor by users.”
  • Arnold et al. (2016) found that suggesting phrases aided writers more with ideas and language than suggesting words, and writers reported phrases provided more ideas than single-word suggestions.

    “They found that phrases aided writers more with ideas (what to say) and language (how to say it).Writers also reported that phrases provided them with more ideas than single-word suggestions.”

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Authors
Arnold, K. C., Gajos, K. Z., & Kalai, A. T.
Affiliations
  • Harvard University (US)
  • Microsoft Research New England (United States) (US)
Venue
Proceedings of the 29th Annual Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology
Publisher
ACM
Published
2016-10-16
Pages
603-608
OpenAlex
W2539241874
Cited by
69
References
40
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 2
FWCI
2.96
Type
conference paper
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) (publishedVersion)
  • Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Usability and User Interface Design
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Interactive and Immersive Displays
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Natural Language Processing Techniques
Keywords
word prediction, mobile keyboards, statistical language models, user interface design, text entry

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