QWERTY and the Other Layouts ⌨️

Keyboards and typing pads are everywhere around us, be it on our smartphones, tablets, laptops, PCs or typewriters. But have you ever wondered why the letters there are not arranged in alphabetical order and are in some random order? If you look at any of the common keyboards, they begin with the letters Q, W, E, R, T and Y on the top left corner and hence are also called the QWERTY keyboards. And these keyboards have some age old background stories behind them. So let’s get started and dig deep!

One of the very first and oldest keyboard layouts is the QWERTY and it was founded by Christopher Latham Sholes when he was attempting to make writing easier with the help of letter-ed keys on his typewriter. As he was making and modifying his typewriter, he tested out various arrangements of the keys and found that he had to arrange the keys in a certain way to prevent jamming in his typewriter. So, Sholes and one of his business partners, Remington, based on suggestions from telegraph writers, together came up with the very first layout, the QWERTY layout in 1874. And by 1890, over 1 lakh QWERTY keyboards were in circulation in the US. 

The QWERTY keyboards kept growing more and more popular. The reasons for this are said to be the following:

• Five top companies in the typewriting industry came together for business and adopted the QWERTY as their standard keyboard thus making it the most widely available one on market.
• The Remington also offered courses that were taught based on QWERTY keyboards further familiarising it to the masses.

All these strategies initialized by Remington and a few more coalitions and policies made the QWERTY take a supreme lead over all the other layouts that were, are, and will be. And though the QWERTY is the single most widely used keyboard layout, not everyone agrees that this is the best that there ever could be. There have always been better keyboard layouts coming on the market, but our habituation with the QWERTY has proved to be a major obstacle in the process of shifting to a newer, better, and more efficient layout.

A few other layouts that have grabbed the attention of computer users over the years are the DVORAK and COLEMAK layouts.

DVORAK Keyboards: 

Dr. August Dvorak in the 1930s invented a new design which goes by his name DVORAK and was supposedly said to make typing easier by putting all the frequently used keys at easily accessible points. Though coming to be known as an efficient model and one of the top layouts, it was not able to replace the QWERTY layout in the market. 

COLEMAK Keyboards:

Then came the COLEMAK keyboard into existence, and it ensures maximum efficiency in typing. It is a design based on the original QWERTY keyboard. It has succeeded in keeping the majority of keys and the shortcut keys in the same places with slight changes to the layout. It reduces the stress and strain in typing as stronger fingers are majorly used for typing on such a keyboard. It is also found that COLEMAK typers (150- 200 wpm) are faster than QWERTY typers (100 wpm) on average. The COLEMAK keyboard is said to be one of the best and fastest keyboards to date.

The QWERTY keyboard seems to have faced many competitions throughout the years, some or majority of the competitors being superior to it. But why do we keep continuing with the QWERTY?

This is mostly because most of us are accustomed to the QWERTY keyboard and it even might be the only keyboard that we have ever used. It’s that inertia that keeps us from shifting to a newer model. And shifting to another layout is not just about us accepting to train with a new model but billions of laptops and PC keyboards getting remodeled and transformed. And that, is going to be a huge task, and we as a world are still a long way from experimenting with a new model! 

But until then, let me know if you think you like QWERTY just because you have been using it for so long or if you actually love it. Would you want to try switching to a new layout? Which layout would that be? Do let me know!

Fun Fact: According to a myth, the QWERTY keyboard is said to have been designed the way it is to put all the letters of the phrase ‘TYPEWRITER QUOTE’ in the top row.

PS: And if you really do want to try a new layout, it’s always a better option to start with your smartphone, since you get to change the layout there at ease, without any additional requirements such as key caps or a new keyboard as in the case of a laptop or a PC.