Hands Tired From Typing? Try An Alternative Keyboard Layout! [Stephen Abbott's blog]

Is it time for a new keyboard layout for our devices?

There are many ways to type. One is to use the keyboard we've all inherited, the so-called "QWERTY" design, named for  the first six keys on the top row of the keyboard. It was created in the 1870s in order to avoid keystrokes from jamming up on early typewriting equipment. And that's only one story. Of course there are several others.

The fact is, we're still using this old 19th Century system, long after any legitimate mechanical reason to do so, simply out of habit, since we now type on devices undreamed of by our ancestors. That's to say, MOST people are still using it. Some have begun to move on.

Some folks have adapted their keyboards to using alternate keyboard layouts that lessen the keystrokes necessary to punch out words on today's modern machines. One such layout is the Dvorak Keyboard, developed in the 1930s.

The Dvorak keyboard was patented in 1936 by August Dvorak, a professor of education. Unlike the traditional QWERTY keyboard, the Dvorak keyboard is designed so that the middle row of keys includes the most common letters. In addition, common letter combinations are positioned in such a way that they can be typed more quickly.

It's been estimated that in an average eight-hour day, a typist's hands travel 16 miles on a QWERTY keyboard, but only 1 mile on a Dvorak keyboard. (Webopedia)

Most operating systems, including Apple and Microsoft PCs, allow users to change over to this keyboard relatively easily. And on Androids and other devices, one can chose from quite a few new input methods, such as Swype. So are we stuck with QWERTY forever? It would seem not.

The good news is that innovation is not standing still. There are many, many other alternatives that have attempted to either improve on the Dvorak by adapting it or tossing it aside for another layout altogether.

The Colemak keyboard layout

For example, the Colemaak keyboard - designed in 2005 by Shai Coleman (who added an "-ak" to the first part of his name, to emulate Dvorak!) - more resembles the QWERTY layout, with only 17 keys changed from the QWERTY layout. It, too, tries to limit the distance one's fingers must travel while typing.

The QWPR ("quipper") layout, designed by a Harvard student, Jameson Quinn, in 2010, further alters the QWERTY, but with only 11 keys are changed, making it even easier to switch over.

Other recent efforts are the Workman keyboard (2010), and (for the really different) the Maltron ergonomic keyboard. There are also several variations of the Dvorak and even the Colemak keyboard layouts. On the other side, the Minimak keyboard (2012) changes just 4 keys - T, D, K and E. It puts the heavily-used E and T letters on the home row, and as designed to make it incredibly easy to switch over.

And of course, switching over is the hard part. QWERTY is so ingrained in our culture - and even most European-adapted keyboards are adaptations of this 19th Century model - that it's likely that it would be extremely hard to gain wide acceptance of other systems. That said, Dvorak is gaining in popularity, with Colemak the #3 preferred keyboard layout.

Taking a Stab At Keyboard Layout Design

Being a revolutionary myself, I had to attempt to create a new keyboard layout. Because, why not?

It's actually amazingly easy to do, and with a bit of careful consideration and forethought - such as placing keys where the fingers on ONE hand won't be over-strained by having all the popular letters - I desiged what I call the ASDOTH-Abbott Layout (or ASDOTH-NILE, which spells out the entire "home" keyboard, which on the QWERTY is, of course, ASDF-GH-JKL and, oddly, the semicolon.)

The first step was to determine the frequency of letters in the English alphabet, which are (in order):

e t a o i n s r h l d c u   m f p g w y b v k x j q z

Clearly, the first 13 of the 26 deserve primacy on the home row, to avoid stretching the fingers as much as possible. Splitting them up from left and right, while also  trying to keep as many keys in familiar locations to ease the transition, was a good goal. It wasn't difficult to arrive at the following layout:

The ASDOTH-NILE keyboard layout (2016).

Without previously looking at the QWPR keyboard, I'd in fact designed something very similar, with my design being only 11 letters different from the QWERTY (and four keys different from QWPR) yet allowing for 10 of the 13 letters most frequently used in English to be placed on the home row. The R, C and U, round out the first 13, remain in their current QWERTY locations.

The Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (a free download) or SIL Ukelele for the Apple OS, allows literally ANYONE to create their own keyboard layouts and place them onto their laptops and desktops.

By putting this power in the hands of the people - actually, at their fingertips - and with the internet allowing them to put their designs out into the world, as I've done here, QWERTY may be in its final decades of dominance!

By Stephen Abbott, Principal of Abbott Public Relations, a division of Abbott Media Group, which creates written messages which inspire, inform, educate and engage, in mass media, publishing and public relations. On twitter and Facebook.