PW #2

The current default keyboard design in English speaking countries is the QWERTY keyboard design. Some people choose to use other keyboard designs, or other types without letters. The current QWERTY keyboard design has been shown to be a worse choice then other keyboard layouts. A keyboard design can be worse if it does not have common letters in the middle, where your fingers go to type most often, and less common ones on the outside. The QWERTY keyboard was invented in 1873, and a lot has changed since then. While QWERTY is better then a random layout, there is much better keyboard designs. For example, the second most popular keyboard design Dvorak has “typing effort reduction in moving to Dvorak is 30%”. There is some downsides, like if your pinky isn’t very strong this uses the pinky 56% more. You may ask, why we as the world have not switched to a more efficient keyboard design like Dvorak or any other design. The answer to the question is just familiarity. People are familiar with the QWERTY keyboard layout, and it takes quite a long time to get used to another keyboard layout. Most people don’t see it worth to spend all the time and effort learning a new keyboard layout. There is a common myth that says the QWERTY keyboard design was to make people type as slowly as possible to prevent mechanical jamming, which is false