Have you ever looked at your keyboard and wondered “Why are the letters arranged in such a random-looking way?” You’re not alone if you have. The traditional keyboard layout, known popularly as QWERTY (after the first six letters on the first row), was designed by the inventor of the typewriter, Christopher Sholes, in 1874 to address a particular design flaw in his prototype – it prevented the arms of the type elements from jamming together by placing common digraphs (two-letter combinations) further apart on the keyboard and platen. (Some say it was also designed to slow down typing speeds which would also cause the arms to jam, but there is no hard evidence to support this theory.)

That’s all well and good, but the original point and purpose of Sholes’s design was rendered irrelevant by advancing typewriter technology; later commercial designs were designed not to jam. Sholes himself actually came up with what he considered an improved keyboard layout, based on letter frequencies in the English language, but by then the typewriter was well on its way to becoming standard writing/office equipment and few, if any, manufacturers wanted to risk upsetting the apple cart with a complete redesign, even if it was an improvement over a keyboard that was really designed as a stopgap, a way to overcome a design flaw that, practically speaking, no longer existed.

And so QWERTY rolled on, becoming the industry standard in keyboard design. It still holds this title today, 134 years after its creation and many decades after the mechanical flaws that necessitated its design had gone the way of the dodo. Logically, there is no longer any reason for QWERTY to be the standard, but since everyone got so used to it when typewriters first came out it’s sort of become one through sheer brute force and the tendency of the human animal to not attempt to mess with something that works “well enough,” especially with the belief, however unfounded in this case, that the inventor of the layout must have known what he was doing for it to have lasted this long.

Unfortunately, there is one rather nasty side effect to QWERTY that neither Sholes nor his business partners could have foreseen in the late 19^th century – RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury). The way the QWERTY layout was designed and typing habits became established, it was soon discovered that far too many words were being typed by a single hand (in a traditional ten-finger arrangement, with tips starting on the ASDF and JKL; keys), causing additional stress on that hand leading to muscle soreness and eventual loss of motion range (what we now call carpal tunnel syndrome). But rather than blame the keyboard design itself for these problems (again, it must have been the correct layout if the inventor of the machine came up with it, right?), different typing techniques were taught, “typing breaks” became enforced, and wrist-rests and other such devices were invented. The machine wasn’t – couldn’t be – the problem, it had to have been the person or persons using the machine that were at fault for this.

In 1936, Dr. August Dvorak patented a new keyboard, intended to replace QWERTY with an improved layout that could be easily implemented using existing typewriter keyboards. This new layout, which would become known as the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard, was arrived at as the result of extensive research into typing habits, typewriter design, and even the English language itself.

Dvorak’s layout was based on a simple premise: With most typists starting out on the home row, would it not make sense to have the most commonly typed letters either on, or within easy access of, those ten keys? Less common characters would be proportionally further away, thus reducing the amount of motion typists would have to do (as most of the words involved would be within easy reach of their fingertips from a neutral position) and, thus, the chances of injury from continually reaching to find those keys. The Dvorak layout as applied to a modern computer keyboard is illustrated below, with QWERTY equivalents provided in red for reference. (Note that the A and M keys are in the same positions in both layouts.)

Notice how, from a standard typing position (index fingers over the dark grey keys, with the other fingers of each hand falling naturally on the keys behind those), most of the commonly-used letters of the English language are either directly under your fingertips or within easy reach. (Note, also, that all of the vowels are typed with the left hand, thus all but guaranteeing that most words will be typed using a balanced combination of both hands.) This is thought to reduce the amount of reaching your fingertips have to do in order to type many common words.

No small amount of controversy surrounds Dvorak’s studies, with critics claiming that he skewed the results of tests suggesting his keyboard was easier to use and faster to learn than QWERTY for purely commercial reasons. The notion that Dvorak reduces the risk of RSI is also disputed, since the actual design of the keyboard doesn’t change (only the locations of the letters and some symbols do), and it’s still somewhat awkwardly staggered, which itself can bring on carpal tunnel. Still, proponents of Dvorak insist that it’s far more comfortable to type for extended sessions using this layout as opposed to QWERTY, and that it doesn’t entail the purchase of a relatively expensive ergonomic keyboard to achieve this effect.

My own story follows a familiar pattern. I was a QWERTY touch-typist for almost ten years, and could attain speeds upwards of 70 WPM (words per minute) when pressed to do so. I was also starting to experience severe pain in my wrists and fingers, and not even switching to an ergo keyboard (a Microsoft Natural, for the record) seemed to help very much. At that point I decided I had little to lose by giving Dvorak a try; it was a simple enough change in my system settings, and after printing out a Dvorak layout sheet and pasting it above my monitor I was ready to start relearning how to type. I won’t lie; it was a tough process, and it took me almost two months of sticking with it before I even began to approach my old typing speeds. (Actually learning the layout itself was fairly easy; my fingers began gaining confidence in about two weeks.)  But once I started getting back up to speed, I noticed my hands weren’t in as much pain anymore, which compelled me to stay with it and keep going. That was almost three years ago now, and I’ve been typing in Dvorak ever since; my speeds are now somewhere in the 80-90 WPM neighborhood (approaching 100 in short bursts), and there are times when I’ve been in the rare position of actually being able to type ahead of my own thoughts. And my wrists are doing just fine, thank you, even without the gentle curve or split-key design of a Microsoft Natural or other ergo board. I guess you could say I’m a successful convert.

Have I raised your curiosity? Want to learn more? The best site I’ve found for introducing Dvorak to the masses has been DVZine.org, which provides a printable comic book telling the story of how the Dvorak layout came to be, touches on the theory behind its design, dispels a few myths about the history of the keyboard, and tells you how you can make the switch between QWERTY and Dvorak on your own computer. If you actually want to give Dvorak a go, ABCD: A Basic Course in Dvorak has a collection of decent online typing lessons (it’s recommended you not use the famous Mavis Beacon tutors despite their inclusion of a Dvorak mode, because the Dvorak lessons are mainly designed as standard QWERTY drills that aren’t as effective with the alternate layout).

You don’t even have to move around the actual keys on your keyboard (unless you want to); if you’re going to take the time and effort to learn Dvorak, you might as well learn to touch-type (that is, type without looking at the keys), and learning Dvorak is a decent way to learn how to do it without the crutch of being able to look down and see which letter you’re supposed to use. (Instead, do what I did; print up a Dvorak map and tape it to your monitor or somewhere else in your line of sight while you’re learning.) If your computer is in an environment where security is an issue, leaving the physical keys alone has an added side benefit of encrypting your keystrokes; that is, if someone not versed in Dvorak tries to use your computer, all they will get is ydco orpy ru iapxai. ,d.b ypfcbi yr ajj.oo lrpb ocy.ov (That’s “this sort of garbage when trying to access porn sites.” typed in Dvorak using the QWERTY keys.) Plus, if you decide it’s not for you or if you’re on a shared PC, switching back to QWERTY is as simple as changing one setting in your Keyboard preferences in your OS of choice.

Even if you don’t buy the “easier to learn” or “faster typing” arguments, my own experience suggests that Dvorak is right on the money in terms of the “more comfortable to use” department. And although I’m not as fast as I used to be, I haven’t lost the ability to type in QWERTY; I can still do around 35-40 WPM once my fingers get re-used to that layout. And I should stress that Dvorak is by no means a “perfect” layout – there are some oddities still, such as why I, a far more common vowel than U, is not placed directly under your finger but instead requires a slightly awkward one-key jump. Many popular games that utilize keyboard input will also need to be remapped to Dvorak if you’ve memorized them by position rather than by letter, in particular the familiar WASD movement keys (which will have to be remapped if possible to ,AOE). But it’s still a marked improvement, at least in my own opinion, over the archaic-if-familiar QWERTY keyboard, and if you’re experiencing pain in your wrists it’s at least worth a try.

It may not work for everyone; all I can say is it worked for me, and I think it might work for you as well. You never know until you try, right?

If you liked that, try...

1. MS releases new XP service pack… sort of
2. Geek Gift Ideas
3. The Darker Side of Open Source?

No Comments »

No comments yet.

Leave a comment