Dvorak keyboard observations

Wes Huang

Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science

Dvorak keyboard observations

In November 1998, I converted to the Dvorak keyboard layout. After approximately 19 hours training (over a week and a half?) using ABCD: A Basic Course in Dvorak by Dan Wood, I was touch typing again (and I had only gone through about 20 of the 30 lessons). Overall, I've been quite happy with the switch. The QWERTY keyboard seems very awkward on those occasions that I have to type on it.

Here are some observations from my experience and some useful links:

Observations

The Dvorak keyboard is great for typing English text. It was designed to be efficient for typing (as opposed to the QWERTY keyboard which was designed to slow typists down). There has been increased interest in the Dvorak keyboard because of the increase in repetitive strain injuries and carpal tunnel syndrome. Here are a few of the main advantages:
- 70% of letters typed are on the home row as opposed to 31% for QWERTY
- The layout is designed to foster "strumming", i.e. common letter combinations on the same hand roll from outside to inside.
- The layout also has a better hand alternation (right, left, right, etc.)
However, I also type C/C++ code and LaTeX documents and use UNIX. The distribution of punctuation for these computer languages is quite different than for English text.
I have created my own unscientific variation on the Dvorak keyboard which I'm experimenting with. My theory is that I type far more slashes, backslashes, and braces than the average typist, so I have left the hyphen, underscore, equals, and plus where the are on the QWERTY keyboard. Brackets and braces are on the same keys as in the QWERTY layout except that I have switched them: I have to press shift to get a bracket, the less frequently used symbol. I put slash and backslash on the Dvorak hyphen and underscore key (where quote and double-quote would be in QWERTY). The question mark is on the backslash key.
The semicolon is a little bit out of the way on the Dvorak keyboard, but I haven't really come up with any better solution. I do like it on the left hand rather than on the right pinky.
In my opinion, using gnu-emacs under Dvorak works just as well if not better. One main advantage is that 'x' and 'c' are not next to each other, so you won't accidentally exit emacs. One disadvantage is that 'p' and 'n' are on different hands.
I'm sure UNIX commands, typically two character abbreviations, were especially chosen using the QWERTY keyboard. On Dvorak, "ls", "fg", and "df" are all on a single finger. On the other hand (literally!) another commonly used command "cd" is on a single finger in the QWERTY layout whereas it is a comfortable two finger command under Dvorak.
I've always created aliases for many UNIX commands, particularly to give different switches to ls (the most frequently used command?), so this hasn't been a major problem.
I should note that I type using both the right and left control and meta keys. I think this is a more ergonomic thing to do to begin with, but I know some people remap the caps lock key to control and use that almost exclusively. (It certainly works well with emacs.)
I keep the caps lock where it is because if you want to type a whole word in caps, the left-right alternation in Dvorak makes it difficult to hold down a shift key with one hand and type the word.

Update — Kinesis

In August 2000, I got a Kinesis "Classic" contoured keyboard (made by the Kinesis corporation). It took me only about two hours of training to adapt to typing the letters; punctuation took longer to learn. I am now using the Kinesis keyboard's Dvorak layout which is a little different than the standard Dvorak layout. There are several things I like about this keyboard:

The "backspace" and "enter" keys are under your thumbs (no more straining the right pinky!) The "Control", "Alt", "home", "end", "page up" and "page down" keys are also under the thumbs. I found many of these awkward at first, but I am beginning to like their locations more and more.
The keys are in straight columns, thus reducing lateral finger movement. I find it much more comfortable to type on the Kinesis.
The braces and brackets are in much better positions.
Under the Kinesis Dvorak layout, both the slash and backslash keys are in pretty good locations.

The things I dislike about the Kinesis keyboard

The arrow keys are not in the common "upside-down T" configuration. I'm getting used to it, but it's still awkward.
The "insert" key is not in a good location. I often hit it accidentally when trying to type a "~" or "`" character.
The function keys are very small. (However, I don't tend to use them much anyway.)
When I use the mouse with the right hand, I often find I need to reach across the keyboard with the left hand to hit "space" or "return", and this is more awkward because of the contoured design.

Update — seven years later&hellip

It's now January 2006. For the past seven years, I've been typing almost exclusively with the Dvorak layout. For the most part, this has been on the Kinesis keyboard. I have one at home and one in my office, and I do probably 97% of my typing on those two keyboards. Overall, I've been very happy with the Kinesis keyboards and their Dvorak layout.
I don't think I've regained the typing speed I had on QWERTY. I was a pretty fast typist before the switch (somewhere between 80 and 90 wpm). I am a reasonably fast typist on Dvorak, but I doubt I'm breaking 70 wpm now. Maybe I just need to do some drills to polish up my typing.
One reason for this is that I get a little confused by using different variations of the Dvorak layout. When I work on my laptop (a ThinkPad T42), I have a slightly customized Dvorak layout (described below) that I use under Linux. When I'm forced to work on a Windows machine, I end up using the "standard" Dvorak layout, in which I often end up hunting for some of the punctuation characters (/?=+[]{}). I have to admit, though, having the hyphen right under the right pinky is sort of useful.
My customized version of the Dvorak layout I use on my laptop is a little different than the "unscientific variation" described at the top of the page:
- The letters and basic punctuation (period, comma, single and double quotes) are in the same places as in regular Dvorak.
- Numerals and the corresponding punctuation are in the same place as in QWERTY (which is usually how they are in Dvorak, even though Dvorak did create an optimized arrangement for them too).
- I've left the plus, equals, hyphen, underscore, backquote, tilde, and vertical bar (+=-_`~|) where they are in QWERTY.
- I've also left the brackets and braces ([]{}) where they are in QWERTY. I had previously switched the brackets and braces on the theory that I typed more (curly) braces than (square) brackets, but this just got too confusing — especially since Kinesis Dvorak layout is the same way as QWERTY (i.e., you have to hold shift to get (curly) braces).
- Slash is on the QWERTY single quote key, and backslash is on the QWERTY double quote. This sort of mirrors the Kinesis Dvorak layout. (I used to have this reversed as well, i.e., so I'd have to hold shift to get a slash, but again this got too confusing.)
- Question mark is on the QWERTY backslash key.
I'm pretty slow when I have to type on the QWERTY layout. I even have to look at the keys! I know I could probably retrain in the QWERTY layout so that I could touch type again (and improve my speed), but I only rarely have to type QWERTY these days.