Number of words – 590

The design of the keyboard has a long and peculiar history. Early typewriters experimented with a wide variety of layouts, using three basic themes. One was circular, with the letters laid out alphabetically; the operator would find the proper spot and depress a lever, lift a rod, or do whatever other mechanical operation the device required. Another popular layout was similar to a piano keyboard, with the letters laid out in a long row; some of the early keyboards, including an early version by Sholes, even had black and white keys. Both the circular layout and the piano keyboard proved awkward. In the end, the typewriter keyboards all ended up using multiple rows of keys in a rectangular configuration, with different companies using different arrangements of the letters. The levers manipulated by the keys were large and ungainly, and the size, spacing, and arrangement of the keys were dictated by these mechanical considerations, not by the characteristics of the human hand. Hence the keyboard sloped and the keys were laid out in a diagonal pattern to provide room for the mechanical linkages. Even though we no longer use mechanical linkages, the keyboard design is unchanged, even for the most modern electronic devices. Alphabetical ordering of keys seems logical and sensible: Why did it change? The reason is rooted in the early technology of keyboards. Early typewriters had long levers attached to the keys.

The levers moved individual typebars to contact the typing paper, usually from behind (the letters being typed could not be seen from the front of the typewriter). These long type arms would often collide and lock together, requiring the typist to separate them manually. To avoid the jamming, Sholes arranged the keys and the typebars so that letters that were frequently typed in sequence did not come from adjacent typebars. After a few iterations and experiments, a standard emerged, one that today governs keyboards used throughout the world, although with regional variations. The top row of the American keyboard has the keys Q W E R T Y U I O P, which gives rise to the name of this layout: QWERTY. The world has adopted the basic layout, although in Europe, for example, one can find QZERTY, AZERTY, and QWERTZ. Different languages use different alphabets, so obviously a number of keyboards had to move keys around to make room for additional characters. Note that popular legend has it that the keys were placed so as to slow down the typing. This is wrong: the goal was to have the mechanical typebars approach one another at large angles, thus minimizing the chance of collision. In fact, we now know that the FIGURE 7.4. The 1872 Sholes Typewriter. Remington, the manufacturer of the first successful typewriter, also made sewing machines. Figure A shows the influence of the sewing machine upon the design with the use of a foot pedal for what eventually became the “return” key. A heavy weight hung from the frame advanced the carriage after each letter was struck, or when the large, rectangular plate under the typist’s left hand was depressed (this is the “space bar”). Pressing the foot pedal raised the weight. Figure B shows a blowup of the keyboard. Note that the second row shows a period (.) instead of R.

QWERTY arrangement guarantees a fast typing speed. By placing letters that form frequent pairs relatively far apart, typing is speeded because it tends to make letter pairs be typed with different hands.

Excerpted from ‘The Design of Everyday Things’ by Don Norman