Ever since I was introduced to the Dvorak keyboard layout (thanks Mom!) I’ve been under the impression that it preceded the Qwerty layout. However, if Wikipedia is to be believed, Qwerty actually preceded Dvorak’s layout by 63 years! Over the course of ten years the Qwerty layout was “improved” until they ended up with what we have today. Granted, it was probably the best solution for a mechanical typewriter, but those things have been extinct for roughly 30 years! (Source) Dr. August Dvorak of Seattle noticed some of the severe flaws in the Qwerty layout: (Source)
- Many common letter combinations require awkward finger motions.
- Many common letter combinations are typed with the same finger.
- Many common letter combinations require a finger to jump over the home row.
- Many common letter combinations are typed with one hand while the other sits idle.
- Most typing is done with the left hand, which for most people is the weaker hand.
- Many common letter combinations are typed by adjacent fingers, which is slower than using other fingers.
- About 30% of typing is done on the lower row, which is the slowest and most difficult row to reach.
- About 52% of keyboard strokes are done in the top row, requiring the fingers to travel away from the home row most of the time.
He then studied letter frequencies and the physiology of people’s hands and created a layout to alleviate the problems he identified with the QWERTY layout. The layout he created adheres to these principles: (Source)
- Letters should be typed by alternating between hands (which makes typing more rhythmic, increases speed, reduces error, and reduces fatigue).
- For maximum speed and efficiency, the most common letters and digraphs should be the easiest to type. This means that they should be on the home row, which is where the fingers rest, and under the strongest fingers (Thus, about 70% of keyboard strokes on the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard are done on the home row).
- The least common letters should be on the bottom row, which is the hardest row to reach.
- The right hand should do more of the typing, because most people are right-handed.
- Digraphs should not be typed with adjacent fingers.
- Stroking should generally move from the edges of the board to the middle. An observation of this principle is that, for many people, when tapping fingers on a table, it is easier going from little finger to index than vice versa. This motion on a keyboard is called inboard stroke flow.
As you have probably guessed by now, I’m a big fan of the Dvorak layout. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of you out there that can type faster than I can even when you are using Qwerty, but I’m pretty confident my top speed would be 50-60 WPM using Qwerty when I can get 70-80 WPM using Dvorak (without lots of practice/exercises). Since I spend all of my work-day on a computer the reduced finger movement is also very nice. I would encourage anyone that has the time to start learning the basics of Dvorak, you’ll catch on fast and probably never want to go back.