What is a QWERTY keyboard? Understand the origins and significance of this widely used keyboard layout.

When you examine the layout of a standard computer or phone keyboard, it's clear that the keys aren't listed alphabetically. For instance, the top row contains the letters Q, W, E, R, T, and Y. The term 'QWERTY' refers to these first six letters. But who designed this arrangement, and is it the most efficient layout?

Story Behind the QWERTY Keyboard Layout

In 1874, Remington & Sons produced the first commercially available typewriter, the Sholes and Glidden Type Writer, or Remington Number 1. This machine featured a mechanism designed by Christopher Latham Sholes and Carlos Glidden. The three men, along with Samuel Soule, patented the design. Later, Sholes sought funding to advance his work and reached out to his former business partner, James Densmore, who encouraged Sholes to refine his design while buying out Glidden and Soule's shares in the project.

To bring the new device to life, Densmore and his partner George Washington Yost approached E. Remington and Sons, who were searching for new revenue streams following the end of the American Civil War and a decline in demand for firearms. The company, which had previously manufactured sewing machines, agreed to produce the typewriter. Coincidentally, the typewriter closely resembled a sewing machine.

However, the original typewriters did not feature the QWERTY keyboard layout. Initially, the inventors intended to use an alphabetical two-row keyboard. The QWERTY layout was not patented until 1878, after Remington's first typewriters had already been released.

The Sholes and Glidden typewriters featured a mechanism where each key was linked to a metal bar corresponding to the letter. When a key was pressed, a linkage would move the bar toward a ribbon coated with ink. The character would then be printed onto the paper placed behind the ribbon. Afterward, the bar would return to its original position until the next key was pressed.

However, Sholes soon realized that the typewriters with this design had a major flaw. The faster someone typed, the less time each letter bar had to return to its position before another key was struck. As a result, the bars often collided and jammed the machine. The commonly told story suggests that Sholes designed the QWERTY layout to place the most frequently used letters in less accessible spots to slow down typists and reduce jams.

Although this is a popular explanation, it turns out that Densmore was likely the one who conceived the QWERTY layout. The design was probably intended to place common two-letter combinations on opposite sides of the keyboard or within easy reach of both hands, enhancing typing efficiency. However, the layout soon came under scrutiny as people began to explore the possibility of a better design.

The Dvorak Keyboard Layout

August Dvorak, who was the director of research at the University of Washington and a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve by the 1940s, collaborated with a team of engineers to study 250 different keyboard variations, including QWERTY, which they deemed one of the least efficient designs. More than half of the typing on a QWERTY keyboard relies on the left hand, and many common words are typed with only the left hand. Since most people are right-handed, Dvorak believed that the design unfairly burdened the weaker hand.

The engineers also observed how often a typist's fingers had to move off the home row to reach other keys. Over 3,000 words are typed using only the left hand, which Dvorak considered inefficient.

To enhance typing efficiency compared to the QWERTY layout, Dvorak developed his own design, based on scientific studies of letter frequency and common word patterns. In 1936, Dvorak patented his Dvorak Simplified Keyboard (D.S.K.) layout. His design minimizes finger movement and seeks to balance the workload between both hands for greater efficiency.

In the Dvorak layout, the most frequently used letters are placed on the home row to minimize finger movement. The left hand is responsible for all vowels and some nearby consonants, while the right hand handles only consonants. In the Dvorak layout, very few words can be typed with just one hand (such as "papaya" and "opaque"). In contrast, both "pumpkin" and "minimum" can be typed with one hand on a QWERTY keyboard — try it yourself!

Is Dvorak Better than QWERTY?

In his article "There is a Better Typewriter Keyboard," Dvorak critiques the widely adopted QWERTY layout, which he refers to as "the so-called Standard Keyboard." If Dvorak were alive today, he might be disheartened to discover that the American National Standards Institute has officially recognized QWERTY as the standard for computer keyboards. Ironically, the International Organization for Standardization uses a slightly altered version of QWERTY, with the same general key sequence but occasionally adding extra keys for common diacritics like accent marks.

There are arguments suggesting that the Dvorak keyboard doesn't provide a clear advantage over QWERTY. A 1956 report by Dr. Earl P. Strong, sponsored by the U.S. General Services Administration, found that typists retrained to use the D.S.K. were only faster and more accurate than those using QWERTY in longer typing tasks during the study. Strong concluded that switching to Dvorak-based typewriters, along with retraining, would not justify the cost of new equipment.

If you'd like to try it out for yourself, you can switch your keyboard to the Dvorak layout by simply adjusting a setting on your computer's operating system. Depending on your specific keyboard, you might also be able to physically rearrange the keys to match the Dvorak configuration.