Virtual keyboards are essential for mobile text entry. Yet, text entry is a learned skill that requires a significant investment in practice by novice users, or re-training when a novel keyboard layout is adopted. This study assesses the learning of unfamiliar virtual keyboard layouts, by evaluating mobile users’ typing performance and accuracy under two conditions: 1) using the layouts without any assistance, 2) using the layouts with colour-coded keys as a visual aid. Our goal is to determine whether colour-coding improves the learning of novel keyboard layouts. The experiment results are analyzed to compare speed, accuracy and user experience between the two conditions. Our findings could provide valuable insights into the design of virtual keyboards, particularly in terms of visual enhancements that may improve adoption and usability and contribute to the broader discussion of improving text entry methods for touchscreen devices.