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I am surprised about the trend to make arrow keys half-sized and crammed right next to each other in recent laptops:

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These are the same keys that stand completely isolated on the conventional keyboard, implying that they are really rather important.

Since this change has the potential to affect the user experience in a very negative way, surely it warrants a study of its effects on the UX. Do you know of such a study?

Are there any large-scale studies on the frequency of each key use by the general population?

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    There's a very interesting project that's created a "keyboard heatmap" that has some interesting studies but it only covers the text input keys (as it analyzes text post mortem, not arrow key/ect use mid typing.)
    – Zelda
    Commented Dec 28, 2011 at 14:40
  • I can't seem to find any studies making a proper heatmap of keyboard use, it seems a study would be quite easy using keylogger software. Some non-experimental results suggest arrow key use isn't that great, but I suspect PC gamers would have very different heat maps.
    – Zelda
    Commented Dec 28, 2011 at 14:45
  • I WISH my arrow keys were nicely in the corner like that on my laptop. Instead, they are jammed in between the keys, and a numpad, however, they aren't full size keys, making them even harder to push. AND the newer laptops that re-use the F keys for other purposes (volume, brightness, etc), and require you to push the fn key to use the F keys.
    – CaffGeek
    Commented Dec 28, 2011 at 15:04
  • I'm using a keylogger software for a while and the keys I press the most on my keyboard are the arrow keys! So far around 22k presses for down arrow vs 18k for command, 14k for spacebar, 14k for left and right shift combined, 10k for E, 10k for A, 9k for return/enter, 8k for the delete key, 6k for the backspace, 2k for esc, around 300 for each number. I'm a left handed developer, non gamer, using a full size keyboard.
    – Marco Luglio
    Commented Jun 5, 2021 at 19:46
  • I also found this, which seems to match what I experince. "back in 1898, it was widely accepted that the most-used key on keyboards was the space bar, followed by the letter E. Some sources still adhere to that convention." "these days, habits have changed. That's because a lot of people who were once casual computer users have switched to using smartphones and tablets with touchscreens" "work, in contrast, tend to replace the vowel keys — A, E, I, O and U — and the spacebar and the arrow keys" Source: computer.howstuffworks.com/…
    – Marco Luglio
    Commented Jun 5, 2021 at 20:04

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One thing to consider when it comes to the arrow keys is that what they're usually used for is mouse interaction shortcuts. You use them for navigating in a text editor, can be done with the mouse, and they're used for selection which also can be done by the mouse.

I would say this is one of the reasons why they have smaller dedicated space compared to other keys.

Still, since they are mapped in in out most corner of the keyboard they are still easily accessible without locating them with your eyes first.

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  • The problem is, on a laptop, arrows (keyboard) tend to be faster and easier to use than a mouse. Unfortunately, since the average user doesn't know the shortcuts, they use the mouse. And the manufacturers design for the average user.
    – CaffGeek
    Commented Dec 28, 2011 at 17:44
  • @Chad true, the manufacturer will design for the largest focus group to get more revenue.
    – AndroidHustle
    Commented Dec 29, 2011 at 9:12

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