Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Dvorak Simplified Keyboard

The one we're using is the standard Qwerty Keyboard invented by C. Latham Sholes in the 1860s. In 1936, August Dvorak invented this kind of keyboard layout according to how we use the letters and how we type them. He is, after all, a psychologist (educational).



Here are some facts about the keyboard:

1. Letters should be typed by alternating between hands.
2. 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.
3. The least common letters should be on the bottom row, which is the hardest row to reach.
4. The right hand should do more of the typing, because most people are right-handed.
5. Digraphs should not be typed with adjacent fingers.
6. 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.

Though they weren't successful as the mainstream keyboard, it had found its way to newer platforms and ergonomic keyboards.

Source

I just find this fascinating. And then this comic shows up:



Maybe it IS interesting to learn a new keyboard.

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