August Dvorak watched frustrated as typing students struggled with the inefficient QWERTY keyboard in the 1930s.
As a professor of education at the University of Washington, Dvorak knew there had to be a better way than the clumsy QWERTY layout—a design created in the 1870s to prevent typewriter keys from jamming rather than for typing efficiency.
Dvorak spent years analyzing typing patterns, finger movements, and letter frequencies in English. His research revealed that with the standard QWERTY keyboard, most typing was done on the top row, while the home row—where fingers naturally rest—was underutilized.
In 1936, after more than a decade of research, Dvorak introduced the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard. His revolutionary design placed the most commonly used letters on the home row, reducing finger travel by up to 95% compared to QWERTY.
Typists who mastered the Dvorak layout reported reduced fatigue, fewer errors, and faster typing speeds. In fact, many of the world’s speed typing records were set by people using Dvorak keyboards.
Despite its proven advantages, the Dvorak layout faced an uphill battle against the deeply entrenched QWERTY standard. Businesses were reluctant to retrain typists or replace existing equipment, leading to what economists call “path dependency”—when inferior standards persist due to switching costs.
The U.S. Navy conducted tests during World War II confirming the Dvorak layout’s superiority, finding that the investment in retraining typists would pay for itself in increased productivity. However, after the war, bureaucratic resistance prevented its widespread adoption.
Today, the Dvorak layout remains available as an option on most operating systems, but QWERTY’s dominance continues—a peculiar case where an intentionally inefficient design from the mechanical age persists in our digital world.
August Dvorak died in 1975, having spent his career trying to make typing more efficient. His simplified keyboard stands as a testament to good design thwarted by the powerful forces of standardization and inertia.
Sources: University of Washington Archives, U.S. Navy Studies, American Standards Association#DvorakKeyboard
