I honestly don’t get why the heck we use this stupid layout… please somebody help me understand.
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It’s not at all stupid, it’s very functional and well established. Arbitrarily changing it would just be a huge hassle for no reason. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Its quite simply inertia. Anyone can choose to use a different keyboard layout, but most choose not to and instead go with the path of least resistance.
It isn’t a question of “stupid” layout. All of the most commonly used letters are close together. Less commonly used letters are further apart. Plus you have inertia.
And, lastly, of course is the real question: *What do you replace it with that is objectively better?* if you can make an objectively better design, you’ll likely be a very rich individual.
Because it would be insanely disruptivefor absolutely no benefit. The entire QWERTY keyboard-using world would have to suddenly learn to type all over again for no reason whatsoever.
Are you willing to change your keyboard layout on your phone to a “better” layout? Are you willing to buy a keyboard for your computer that has a “better” layout? Are you willing to make a stand and create a movement politically to make legislation happen that will cause our society to transition to a better layout?
I’m going to assume no. Because the benefits aren’t worth the effort.
It’s used because it used to fix a mechanical problem on type writers, then when computers with keyboards came out they wanted it to be easy to switch over so they just used the same layout, it’d be too hard to switch the entire industry of both manufacturing keyboards and teaching of a new keyboard system for what it’s worth which is almost nothing
Because when the transition between electric keyboards and mechanical typewriters happened, they still had to cater to an enormous pool of peole who already knew how to type. It was a perfectly functional standard, most people who knew how to type already knew how to do it, and learning on a different keyboard would not benefit new typists more than the existing standards. In short:
https://xkcd.com/927/
America still uses imperial units. Habits on a institutional or national level are ridiculously difficult to break
I learned to type on QWERTY. And I have no incentive to change. I can already type over 100 wpm. Could I type even faster using a different layout? Probably. Is it worth the hassle of essentially relearning to type? No.
You’ve just stumbled upon an example of path dependence. Basically, it’s the thing everyone uses because it’s the thing everyone uses.
The QWERTY keyboard came about because it kept typewriter arms from jamming. So QWERTY became the standard. Everyone who learned to type learned QWERTY, because that’s what was available.
Now you develop a new electric typewriter where the arms don’t jam. So you could put a Dvorak keyboard on it.
You’re the procurement manager for a large office building. You are going to place an order for 200 electric typewriters for your secretary pool. What are you going to buy: the Dvorak, which is more efficient, or the QWERTY, which everyone knows how to use?
If you know how to type, you will type much faster on a keyboard layout that you know than a layout that you don’t know, regardless of what it is. So you, Mr. Procurement Manager, are going to buy the QWERTY, because even if the Dvorak is more efficient in the long run, it will result in a *massive* drop in productivity *right now*, and you really want to keep your job.
All the other procurement managers make the same choice, so much so that only QWERTY keyboards get made. And because that’s all that’s available, that’s what the upcoming generation learns to type on.
Slap on your aviators, because now it’s the 80’s and you need to procure keyboards for your brand-new desktop computers. Everyone in your office moving over from typewriters knows QWERTY, and so that’s what you buy keyboards in, and so that ends up being the only way keyboards are sold (excepting specialty orders.)
So now everyone who uses a computer – which by the 90s grows to include everyone – learns to type one QWERTY.
Flash forward. Now a bunch of your workers are using mobile phones with text capability. But what sucks is the phones use the letter scheme the way it’s laid out on touch tone phones, which is hard to figure out unless you dialed a LOT of 900 numbers when you were a kid. You know what would work out better instead? A bunch of those new BlackBerry phones with the familiar QWERTY keyboard.
Ok, congratulations on your promotion to Apple Product Development. You’re working on this new device, the iPhone. It’s going to have a *virtual* keyboard, one that doesn’t even have real keys. You could set up any keyboard layout you want, change it every day if you like. What are you going to set as the default layout?
Probably the same thing that anyone who has ever typed on any device — typewriter, computer, phone — has used: QWERTY. Because it’s *still* faster to type on a keyboard you know than a keyboard you don’t.
And now kids are learning to type on a QWERTY keyboard without ever touching a physical key. And that’s how it’s going to be for probably generations because no new keyboard layout will ever save enough effort to compensate for the effort of unlearning QWERTY and relearning a new system.
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