Abstract

Plains Cree is a less-resourced language in Canada. To promote its usage online, we describe previous keyboard layouts for typing Plains Cree syllabics on smartphones. We describe our own solution whose development was guided by ergonomics research and corpus statistics. We then describe a case study in which three participants used a previous layout and our own, and we collected quantitative and qualitative data. We conclude that, despite observing accuracy improvements in user testing, introducing a brand new paradigm for typing Plains Cree syllabics may not be ideal for the community.