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1 correction found
they did extensive tests and analyses to determine the EXACT BEST PATTERN for the number buttons.
Bell did study keypad layouts, but Bell’s own published research did not find one single “exact best” number pattern. The study reported no significant performance difference among five finalist layouts.
Full reasoning
Bell Labs really did run human-factors studies on pushbutton telephone layouts, but the documented result was not that they had identified one uniquely optimal keypad pattern.
In the published 1960 Bell System Technical Journal paper by R. L. Deininger, the abstract says the results showed "considerable latitude" in keypad design rather than one exact optimum. In the body of the paper, after Bell compared five finalist arrangements, it reported "No significant differences" in keying times or error rates and concluded that "any of the five arrangements was acceptable," except that the two-column version was disliked by users.
A later American Psychological Association summary of the Bell work likewise says that when researchers compared the standard telephone keypad with the calculator-style layout, the telephone layout was found superior. So the post overstates Bell’s research: Bell did not publish evidence that it had determined one exact best number-button pattern that the calculator layout then disproved.
3 sources
- Human Factors Engineering Studies of the Design and Use of Pushbutton Telephone Sets
The results indicate that considerable latitude exists for key set design in terms of user performance; however, the preference judgments are more selective.
- Human Factors Engineering Studies of the Design and Use of Pushbutton Telephone Sets (scan of Bell System Technical Journal article)
No significant differences were found among the keying times... no significant differences were found among the error rates... any of the five arrangements was acceptable.
- Pushing Buttons: The Invention of the Phone Keypad
When ergonomists compared the layout of the telephone keypad with that of the calculator ... the phone layout was found to be superior.