As an Industrial Designer, I can’t tell you how many times I have heard the QWERTY keyboard being used as “things not to redesign”. However there is proof in this great article from Wired that QWERTY may not be the way to go. It just happens to be the norm. It turns out, there was an alternate design created in 1932 by August Dvorak, but it was never implemented because it was created during the Great Depression, and no companies had the money to invest in a redesign of their typewriters. In 2005, Barbara Blackburn set a world record of 150 wpm over a 50 minute span. In some short bursts, she even typed as much as 212 wpm. By the way: she failed her high school typing class which used a QWERTY keyboard. The record was set on a Dvorak version. Although it would be extremely tough to implement this design, I wish it would be pushed more. Some interesting folk whom use the Dvorak model: Steve Wozniak, BitTorrent inventor Bram Cohen, and author Terry Goodkind
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As an Industrial Designer, I can’t tell you how many times I have heard the QWERTY keyboard being used as “things not to redesign”. However there is proof in this great article from Wired that QWERTY may not be the way to go. It just happens to be the norm.

It turns out, there was an alternate design created in 1932 by August Dvorak, but it was never implemented because it was created during the Great Depression, and no companies had the money to invest in a redesign of their typewriters.

In 2005, Barbara Blackburn set a world record of 150 wpm over a 50 minute span. In some short bursts, she even typed as much as 212 wpm. By the way: she failed her high school typing class which used a QWERTY keyboard. The record was set on a Dvorak version.

Although it would be extremely tough to implement this design, I wish it would be pushed more.

Some interesting folk whom use the Dvorak model: Steve Wozniak, BitTorrent inventor Bram Cohen, and author Terry Goodkind

9 Notes/ Hide

  1. rhapsodyinj said: Now I want one of these keyboards.
  2. steampoweredmedia said: I heard an apocryphal story about the keyboards: in the early 30’s and years beyond, the typewriter mechanics weren’t good enough to keep up with people using the Dvorak design and would jam and break. QWERTY slowed people enough for the machines.
  3. evrtstudio posted this

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