Dvorak Keyboards made typists faster by reducing finger movement

The QWERTY layout solved the lever jam bottleneck. A better approach to solve that bottleneck is to have no levers altogether.

Resolve one bottleneck and a new bottleneck emerges. Now the problem is to reduce human finger movement. This is the basic idea of the Dvorak keyboard:

Nope no DVORAK arrangement here!

Dvorak keyboards were intended to try and be easy on AVERAGE human hands rather than trying to save expensive machines. Improvements in technology meant the bottleneck moved.

in the 1930's to increase efficiency and reduce finger fatigue.

In the Dvorak layout, around 70% of typing is done on the home row (the middle row where the fingers rest), compared to about 32% in QWERTY. This reduces the distance fingers need to travel and increases typing speed and comfort.

The Dvorak layout places the most commonly used letters in the English language on the home row. This design decreases the amount of finger movement required to type common words, reducing strain and increasing typing speed.

The layout favors the right hand slightly more than the left, which aligns with the fact that most people are right-handed. The most frequently used letters and letter combinations are positioned to be typed with the right hand.

The Dvorak layout often alternates hands for successive letters in common words, which is believed to allow for faster typing. This alternation reduces the chances of finger collisions and awkward hand positions, making for smoother, more rhythmic typing.

Basically it’s hard to know if Dvorak keyboards are faster for most people because to learn to touch type on a QWERTY keyboard is so much effort that most people don’t have the time. Then you have the problem of being in a world full of QWERTY keyboards that you still have to deal with.

But this was just the start.

Keyboard innovation never stopped

Concepts

Dvorak Keyboards made typists faster by reducing finger movement

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