Dvorak - A Personal Challenge
This is probably going to turn out to be the shortest blog post ever. I’m doing little better than hunting and pecking, you see. I have decided to take on yet another challenge - learning the Dvorak keyboard layout! If you have never heard of it, don’t worry, you’re not alone. For an amazingly well developed explanation, check out dvzine.org.
Basically, the original QWERTY layout (just look at your keyboard, you’ll see why it’s called that) was actually developed to be as inefficient as possible. See, to avoid jams, the typewriter was designed to literally slow down its user. In today’s world (ever since the 1930s in fact), keyboards don’t jam (at least, mine doesn’t). With everyone typing as inefficiently as possible, fatigue became a problem. In 1936 a professor of ergonomics named Dvorak developed and patented a keyboard designed specifically for comfort and efficiency.
Sadly, because so many had already learned QWERTY, Dvorak was never accepted by the typewriter companies, and fell into obscurity. Despite the world land-speed typing record (212 wpm!!) being set with none other than Dvorak, most people have never heard of it. Unfortunate, since by reducing hand movement, it greatly lessens the risk of repetitive motion injury (which I need to be very careful with!)
So, in an effort to keep myself challenged and out of physical therapy for carpal tunnel, I’ve switched my keyboard to Dvorak, and am struggling through the adaptation period. I am already twice as fast as yesterday!
Anyone interested in taking up the challenge with me?
2 Responses to “Dvorak - A Personal Challenge”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Tom Accuosti on 09 Nov 2007 at 6:32 am #
I read an interesting article a couple of years ago. The supposed increase in productivity with the Dvorak layout was tested during US Navy trials by… Dvorak (or people working for him). In fact, current users test out very similar in productivity trials, and considering that most QWERTY boards are very similar to each other, people familiar with Dvorak layouts are going to be at a disadvantage if they need to use another PC.
It was probably in PC World or PC Magazine, but I can’t remember. However, it might be a good idea to switch if you’re already developing CTS, because the muscle use will be different.
admin on 09 Nov 2007 at 6:39 am #
That’s interesting… part of it is that I’m just a junkie for personal challenges, whether they’re necessarily “productive” or not.
I can still type QWERTY, but Dvorak is getting faster too, so that’s nice. It’s a little like a second language (though I still suck at it)