Would you be able to live without a keyboard for a day?
This is not a question I would normally ask myself, but I only came to realize its significance in my life after researching for this assignment. Whether it is attached to our laptops or on the screens of our phones, keyboards are a crucial part of our everyday communication in the online world, but have you ever wondered why they are arranged in the way they are now?
The Typewriter
Though the concept of typewriters has existed a while before, its more relevant history began in the summer of 1868, when Christopher Latham Sholes, Carlos Glidden, and Samuel Soule put a patent on the first typewriter. Though it did not receive much attention in the beginning, typewriters slowly made their way into the world of business communication, becoming the most prominent invention in the industry until the computer. Unlike our keyboards today, the letters were in a completely different order and it can only type in capital letters. When typing, the keys strike upward, meaning that the person typing could never see what was being typed.
QWERTY!
There were many improvements of the keyboard composition by Sholes and other inventors that came shortly after. The common theme between all of them was the goal to place the most common letters as far away from each other as possible. This was crucial especially in the age of typewriters, as it was done to prevent the machine from jamming when typing quickly. The QWERTY keyboard, also accredited to Sholes, rose above the rest and became the standard until this day. Of course, there are valid reasons for the public to adopt the QWERTY keyboard so quickly, but there were also many people that believed it could still be improved.
The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard
One of these people was August Dvorak, who, in the 1930s, came up with a layout comparable to the QWERTY keyboard in its efficiency: the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard. This keyboard was productive as he put the most used letters in the middle row where our fingers naturally lay, making for less reaching and tangled fingers. Dvorak expected his rendition to be an immediate hit, but the reaction was quite the opposite. People were hesitant to try out his new invention, but according to a limited amount of studies, this alternative was actually proved to be slightly better than the QWERTY keyboard. So why are we still using the QWERTY keyboard?
Sholes’ Inventions Prevail
Though Dvorak’s unsuccessful promotion of his new invention was also to blame, the main reason for the failure of his keyboard was the unfortunate timing. Despite the potential people may have seen in Dvorak, the QWERTY keyboard was already so widespread and standardized by the 1900s that switching to a new format would have required a significant amount of time dedicated to relearning and adjusting. The industry ultimately decided that the cost of switching was not worth it, especially because the Dvorak keyboard was only marginally better than the one they were currently using.
Do you think we should have given the new keyboard a shot? Would it have spread like Sholes’ invention if it was invented just a little earlier? Most importantly, was the QWERTY keyboard truly the result of good design, or was it popularized out of convenience?
Sources
https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/fofbusiness/typewriter/0?institutionId=6884.
http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/scitech/carbons/typewriters.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQb1GRQxXdA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIJNusYZXMA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnUBl90tayI