Circa 1936 AD |
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| Almost anyone who spends more than a few seconds working with a QWERTY keyboard quickly becomes convinced that they could do a better job of laying out the keys. Many brave souls have attempted the task, but few came closer than efficiency expert August Dvorak in the 1930s. |
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| When he turned his attention to the typewriter, Dvorak spent many tortuous months analyzing the usage model of the QWERTY keyboard (now there's a man who knew how to have a good time). The results of his investigation were that, although the majority of users were right-handed, the existing layout forced the weaker left hand (and the weaker fingers on both hands) to perform most of the work. Also, thanks to Sholes' main goal of physically separating letters that are commonly typed together, the typist's fingers were obliged to move in awkward patterns and only ended up spending 32% of their time on the home row. | Dvorak took the opposite tack to Sholes, and attempted to find
the optimal placement for the keys based on letter frequency and human anatomy. That is,
he tried to ensure that letters which are commonly typed together would be physically
close to each other, and also that the (usually) stronger right hand would perform the
bulk of the work, while the left hand would have control of the vowels and the lesser-used
characters. The result of these labors was the Dvorak Keyboard,
which he patented in 1936.
The Dvorak keyboard (circa 1936) |
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| Note that Dvorak's keyboard had shift keys, but they are omitted from the above figure for reasons of clarity. The results of Dvorak's innovations were tremendously effective. Using his layout, the typist's fingers spend 70% of their time on the home row and 80% of this time on their home keys. Thus, as compared to the approximately 120 words that can be constructed from the home row keys of the QWERTY keyboard, it is possible to construct more than 3,000 words on Dvorak's home row (or 10,000 words if you're talking to someone who's trying to sell you one). Also, Dvorak's scheme reduces the motion of the hands by a factor of three, and improves typing accuracy and speed by approximately 50%, and 20%, respectively. | Unfortunately, Dvorak didn't really stand a chance trying to sell typewriters based on his new keyboard layout in the 1930s. Apart from the fact that existing typists didn't wish to re-learn their trade, America was in the heart of the depression years, which meant that the last thing anyone wanted to do was to spend money on a new typewriter. In fact, the Dvorak keyboard might have faded away forever, except that enthusiasts in Oregon, USA, formed a club in 1978, and they've been actively promoting Dvorak's technique ever since. (See also The Sholes (QWERTY) keyboard.) |
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| These notes are abstracted from the book Bebop BYTES Back (An Unconventional Guide to Computers) Copyright Information |
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