Resumen de Functional digraphia in Japan as revealed in consumer product preferences
In places where people customarily use Chinese characters, the typical computer user inputs them by means of alphanumeric strings corresponding to the phonemics of the language strings for which the characters are meant to stand. The use of the raw input stream as primary text, though practical, is culturally alien and therefore seldom encountered. Nevertheless, this incomplete coexistence of two writing systems seems to be a genuine instance of digraphia. Recent trends in computer purchasing choices show that the use of alphanumerics by Japanese consumers is not a trivial or expedient behavior cut o from other activities. It is a demanding skill, psychologically integrated into the fabric of daily life, with measurable economic consequences. These consequences are highlighted by Donald Norman's recent theory of why certain new technologies succeed while others fail to win a mass market.
