![]() Learning to use an ABCDEF keyboard at approximately the same time as learning the alphabet (we are talking about children, of course) would be the best way to introduce a mental change with keyboards. ![]() Getting used to a different layout would be almost like learning a new language, and this is something that would obviously take a long time. So, if there are other keyboard layouts that give us faster typing speed than QWERTY, why do we continue to use this and not more optimized ones? Because somehow everyone has learned to use it, and most of us have become so extremely good at it that we type without even looking at the keyboard. Over the decades, many people have tried to introduce a culture change with keyboards that make more sense for example we have the Dvorak keyboards (also called a simplified keyboard) which is designed to increase typing speed, but has never really been adopted by users. Why don’t we stop using this very old distribution? How many people use a typewriter today? And of those who still use it, how many have a wand typewriter if they are digital? We have an entire generation growing up today with mobile devices, and even they use the QWERTY keyboard. So here we are, more than 140 years later we are still using a keyboard layout designed to fix a problem that no longer exists. This keyboard layout became the standard with the popularity of the Remington typewriter, which was the first to use it since, as we have mentioned before, they were the ones who acquired the patent from Christopher Sholes in 1873 after that, the rest of the manufacturers lined up and started using it as well. To solve this problem is why the QWERTY layout was developed, since the keys are placed in such a way that the most used letters are spaced from each other so that the metal rods do not collide with each other when typing (or at least they did not. To be able to find this position without having to look at the keyboard, the keys corresponding to the index fingers of each hand (F and J) have a small notch so that we can distinguish them by touch. In this type of keyboard, according to the most widespread typing technique and in the resting position, four fingers of each hand are placed on the central row of keys. In addition to this problem, this layout was initially designed to improve typing speed by being able to use both hands simultaneously. The reason why the keys have been placed in this order and not in another (such as in alphabetical order as in the first typewriters, which would be more logical than this one, which seem to have been distributed haphazardly) was to solve a problem that existed precisely at that time: some people ended up writing so extremely fast on the first typewriters that the metal rods they used collided with each other, causing breakdowns. Obviously, the name of this layout comes from the first six letters that appear in the top row of keys. None of us were born when this style of keyboard was first adopted, in 1873, although it is true that the design and patent actually date back to a few years earlier, 1868 by Christopher Sholes (however, Christopher Sholes sold him the patent to Remington in 1873 which was when it began to be used). How has it become so critically important as to arrive at these staggering numbers? The origins of the QWERTY layout From the first typewriters to the virtual keyboards we use on smartphones, the QWERTY layout is the most widely used worldwide and is used by around 97% of all keyboards worldwide.
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