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Computer Keyboards: What makes Dvorak a better layout than QWERTY?

  • I often hear that, for computer keyboards, Dvorak is a better layout. Why? What have your experiences been with QWERTY and Dvorak? I can touch type, and while my typing form probably isn't ideal compared to someone who's done training, I type pretty fast. I'm open to better ways of doing things, but would like to know more about why people say Dvorak is better. I know QWERTY was supposedly designed to make people type slower to accommodate typewriters, but that doesn't tell me why Dvorak is better.

  • Answer:

    Allegedly (though, like QWERTY, there's evidence that it's mostly myth), Dvorak calculated the layout as optimal for most English typing. I learned to touch type in high school, and decided to give it a whirl a few years after college.  This is probably about fifteen years ago.  I loaded the keyboard layout and ran through exercises over a lunch hour.  I was up to my normal speed after a few days.  I don't think I ever got faster. Eventually, probably two or three months in, someone else needed to use my computer, so I switched the layout back and haven't tried it again since. So, that's obviously just one anecdotal data point.  However, I didn't have any trouble with it, but also didn't see much of a benefit other than it was an interesting exercise.

John Colagioia at Quora Visit the source

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Dvorak is supposedly faster, although this is probably a moot point unless you are a secretary whose job is to copy paper documents.  On the other hand, Dvorak is generally accepted to be superior for users with a history of repetitive stress wrist injuries -- on laptop keyboards the impact is largest.  The wrist travel on Dvorak is relatively minimal, but on Qwerty it is substantial.  It is even more substantial if you follow the "non-home row" strategies used by the fastest Qwerty typists. Not everyone is prone to such injuries, but if you get one, I suggest switching to Dvorak.

JP Norair

The eight most common letters used in the English language in descending order are E T A O I N S H. In Dvorak, all these are on the home row.In Qwerty, only A, S and H are. E and T, the two most common aren't even on the home row. Dvorak puts them right under both middle fingers.The split of most common letters is something like 70% on the home row, 20% on the top row, and 10% on the bottom row. After learning Dvorak, Qwerty feels like flailing round the keyboard randomly...

Geordie Millar

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