This study consists of a two articles and a summary of those. They deal with the question: How can we improve text entry on small touchscreen based mobile devices?. To answer this we have developed a new technique for writing text on small touchscreen based mobile devices, called directional selection. This technique was then evaluated through the two articles, using two different perspectives. The first article investigates this technique to determine if it is feasible. It deals with the question: Can directional selection be used for text entry on small touchscreen based mobile devices?. The second article compares an implementation of the technique against several existing text entry techniques. It deals with the question: How does QdQ compare to existing small soft keyboards?.