Turbo Typing

Turbo Typing is a free online game, where players type sentences as quickly and accurately as possible. After typing a short series of sentences, they will be shown metrics on their performance (such as words per minute, percentage error, and their fastest time between key presses).

These metrics will be presented visually, within the performance distribution of a large sample of typists that span the skill of typing, from novice to expert. These visualizations introduce players to the ideas of populations, percentiles, and the basics of statistics. Players can also submit their scores to a leaderboard, if they choose.

Turbo Typing is a precursor to a gamified and evidence-based online touch-typing course that is aimed at children, being developed by Dr Emily Williams in 2020-21 as part of her Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund (ISSF) Fellowship, in collaboration with Dr Faisal Mushtaq and Dr Ryan Morehead, Co-Directors of the Immersive Cognition (ICON) Laboratory. The broader aim is to understand and increase the digital skills of children in areas of disadvantage, like some parts of Bradford, where ICON work closely with the Born in Bradford research team and local schools.

Turbo Typing is not only an opportunity for the research team to trial their online typing game, but also an opportunity to provide players feedback on their abilities along with accessible information on statistics in return for their participation. Brief child-friendly information will also be provided on why typing speed is important for interacting with computers, and what research says about the positive effects it can have on one’s future education and career prospects.