Why Aren’t Keyboards Sorted Alphabetically?

Most of us use the Q keyboard on our phones and computers and Even if our eyes are elsewhere, we can easily write the words we want with our fingers. Because we have adopted this order and are quite used to it.

Now the letters on the keyboard according to what they are ordered and whether this ordering is random or not. let’s see.

To answer this question, we need to go back about 150 years, when the typewriter was widely used.

Back then, typing on typewriters was pretty easy and fast, as it should be. But there was a problem. No matter how fast typed writing is, the engagement rate increased as well.

To put it simply, people using alphabetic typewriters were typing so fast that they were pressing almost two keys at the same time. Pressing two keys at the same time jams the typewriter arms meant.

Also, jams on the keyboard It’s because the two keys are close to each other. was also considered. For these reasons, it was estimated that the rearrangement of the letters on the keyboard would reduce these jams, and a new sequence was sought.

After this problem with alphabetical order was noticed, Christopher Latham Sholes, the inventor of the QWERTY keyboard we use now, started looking for a solution.

Christopher has been around for about 5 years after this problem, after a lot of trial and error for users. continued to work for a perfect line-up and Q designed the keyboard. This form of keyboard provided the ability to type both uppercase and lowercase letters using a shift key.

Also, changing hands while typing was something that made the user’s job much easier in the keyboard layout. When a hand writes a letter making the process more efficient by preparing the other hand to write the next was bringing

This approach may seem counterintuitive at first, but imagine trying to type multiple letters with one hand. This will involuntarily cause repetition between letters and therefore your speed will decreaseerrors would also increase.

But when it came to designing a new keyboard, Christopher was not alone and had two other rivals.

In 1936, August Dvorak and Dr. William Dealey A keyboard called Dvorak developed. The duo felt the need to make a new design, arguing that the Q keyboard was not suitable for any language and the letters that were used a lot were in hard-to-reach places.

The Dvorak keyboard had many differences from the QWERTY keyboard. For example, the keyboard layout tried to minimize the distance traveled by the fingers and placing all the most frequently used letters on the main line, It was aimed that the fingers do not put too much effort to press these keys.

But things did not go as August and William wanted, and contrary to their thoughts, the people of the time, Q found the keyboard very useful and this design has survived to this day.

Also, several variations of the QWERTY layout are used by some languages.

The most widely used of these alternatives are: AZERTY for FrenchQZERTY for Italian, QWERTZ for German.

In fact, there is also a keyboard designed for our language.

The F keyboard, which has been used since October 1955 but is not as popular as the QWERTY keyboard, although the most used letters are placed in more convenient places for the fingers. It has not been used much and its use has been limited.

To sum up, the Q keyboards we use now are actually the opposite of the idea that they slow down the users. to speed up is designed.

Again, with this arrangement, placing frequently used keys away from each other encourages exchange between hands and in this way. that writing has become very fast and easy possible to say.