QWERTY, the Universal User
Interface You will notice that the first six letters in a typical
keyboard’s top the first row letters are Q.W.E.R.T. and Y. Even the most advanced and sophisticated word processors and computes support this type of keyboard layout. Now, have you ever wondered why the letters are not arranged alphabetically? The answer might surprise you.
The QWERTY Keyboard layout first appeared in the 1860’s. The design was patented by Christopher Sholes, creator of the first modern typewriter, and a newspaper editor who lived in Milwaukee, United States. The first layout had the characters arranged alphabetically, set on the end of a metal bar that struck the paper when it’s key pressed. However, fast typist had a problem with this layout because the letters that lay close together on the keyboard became entangled with one another. By using a study letter pair frequency, Sholes was able to determine which letters would tend to clash into each other when typed a
succession. He made sure that type bars were hung at safe distances, so that common letter pairs such as TH would not cause jamming when the letters were typed in succession. The QWERTY keyboard layout was the result of this study. And it’s been more than 130 years since its design and invention.
The QWERTY has had some competition from other keyboard layouts. One is the Dvorak keyboard created by Dr. August Dvorak, an educational psychologist at the University of Washington in the U.S. However, the Dvorak has failed to prove itself doesn’t really matter what keyboard we use. In the end, typing fast is but skill that takes a lot of practice to master.