Comments on: Is the Dvorak keyboard layout faster than QWERTY?

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:33:52 +0000

I found Dvorak significantly sped up my typing speed. I first learned to type with Qwerty, and could only reach 60-70WPM max. About two years ago, I switched to Dvorak. After just one month, I was typing the same speed I had been in Qwerty. After that, I only got faster. On average I’m anywhere from 80-110WPM, though I did hit 118 WPM in one test. Yeah, Dvorak really sped up my typing life. And I’ve also found that it’s easier on my hands – doesn’t seem to be quite as much jumping around as Qwerty. I do like it ALOT!

So to sum it up:
QWERTY 60-70WPM (Before)
Dvorak 80-118 WPM (After)

By: Dossy Shiobara

Dossy Shiobara — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:22:26 +0000

Ash: You’re right, that’s the only actual meaningful measurement – one person’s performance before and after.

It makes sense that Dvorak _should_ ultimately yield higher top speeds. Thanks for providing your data!

By: Ash Kayler

Ash Kayler — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:30:45 +0000

I think the only way to solve this argument is for as many people as possible to list their typing speeds before and after the switch. 10 years ago I switched from Qwerty to Dvorak. 2 years ago I switched back to Qwerty. Here are my speeds:

QWERTY 60wpm
Dvorak 70wpm (after 6 months)
QWERTY 60wpm (after 6 months)

If you’re wondering why I switched back, it was because I had to take the GRE exam on a computer that would not permit me to type in Dvorak. Once I had retrained myself in Qwerty, I couldn’t face retraining again in Dvorak, just for the 10wpm.

By: bsdhacker

bsdhacker — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:05:29 +0000

I switched to Dvorak about 2 years ago. Right before the switch, I could type approx 85 wpm on qwerty. I switched cold-turkey and it took me a lot longer to reach my qwerty speeds than I would care to admit (about 12 months), but it was a great investment for my hands! I’m a developer and type a good amount every day. On qwerty, my hands and fingers would really start to hurt after awhile – I think that is in part due to my parents having arthritis, a trait I’m afraid I’ve inherited. But I can now type on Dvorak all day without any noticeable fatigue. As for my current Dvorak speed, I’m now at 100 wpm – which honestly isn’t a huge improvement over my qwerty speeds, but hey… my hands don’t hurt.

By: Macky Franklin

Macky Franklin — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:00:44 +0000

Great debate here guys. Very interesting points of view. I’m writing this on a Dvorak keyboard after 3 days of using it and I admit that I’m still painfully slow. Basically everything I’ve heard suggests that Dvorak is faster once you learn it, so I’m going to stick with it to see how it goes. I admit that I only changed for the sake of getting faster in the long run as I’m quite comfortable on QWERTY…

By: Pavement

Pavement — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 06:30:30 +0000

Something domination the market doesn’t necessarily mean its the best option :\

I don’t see why its such a necessity to talk speed when comparing the two… that’s not what the simplified keyboard was designed for.
They can obtain comparable speeds, and its really only limited by the typist.
The Dvorak, however, is designed to be easier on your hands. There’s less moving the fingers about and many words can be typed out on the home row.

Full sentences like “The idea that nineteen studious Dadaists assisted Einstein is asinine” can be typed out using only the home row… which says something about its design.
Obviously the QWERTY could never pull that off since it only has the vowel a situated on the home row.

By: andy120

andy120 — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:02:27 +0000

Great article! I’ve always used qwerty (I’m a college student) and currently maintain between 85 and 90 wpm, peaking at a little above 100. I wish I could type as fast as you (share you secret?)!

I tried the Dvorak keyboard once but like you went back to qwerty; though perhaps it was my impatience. Also, it is a pain to change the keyboard format on each new computer you use. I often travel to several machines throughout a workday, so it would be far from convenient to change keyboard layouts to Dvorak for me and then back before I leave for my coworkers. Especially if I’m at a computer for only a few minutes at a time!

By: Dossy

Dossy — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 03:45:12 +0000

Edward: Thanks for adding to the discussion! Actually, I think hand alternation can decrease speed and accuracy–try typing the word “were.” Yes, it’s 100% left-handed, but if you type a word that requires alternation, you have to be careful not to press letters out of sequence. On the Dvorak two-handed layout, “were” alternates hands, starting with the right hand (w), left (e), right (r), left (e). If you want to type that at high speed, you risk typing “ewre”, “weer” or “ewer” – depending on if you jump the gun when alternating hands. However, on QWERTY typing “were” with just one hand, typing “were” is as simple as rolling your fingers from ring finger to pointer finger then back to middle finger – you can do that very rapidly with very little chance of error due to hand alternation synchronization failure.

Granted, there aren’t too many English words that can be typed by rolling of the fingers on a QWERTY keyboard, but I can’t even find one that can be on a Dvorak.

In English, every word has at least one vowel. Putting all the vowels under the left hand in the home row in the Dvorak layout is, IMHO, a huge mistake – it guarantees that every word must be typed with the left hand at some point. In contrast, the QWERTY layout puts “ae” on the left and “iou” on the right – a better balance, IMHO.

In the end, it’s really not really important: I’m very satisfied with my 120+ WPM typing on QWERTY. I don’t see much benefit in unlearning all that muscle memory in order to learn Dvorak in the hopes that I might be able to gain another 10 or 20 WPM in typing speed, eventually.

And, shy of the “famous” Barbara Blackburn, I haven’t heard of any other notably fast Dvorak typists. Are there any? Is there anyone out there highly proficient with the Dvorak layout who can do better than 120-130 WPM at 99% accuracy?

By: Edward Hou

Edward Hou — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:43:27 +0000

Dossy, I believe that the reason QWERTY is the most widely-used keyboard today is because it was, in fact, the best choice at the time — QWERTY was designed to minimize jamming on typewriters by placing the most commonly used keys far apart.

I also believe that Dvorak is the much better choice for modern keyboards because we don’t have to deal with jamming; the issue now is how far your fingers have to travel, hand alternation, and other ergonomic concerns, and Dvorak defeats QWERTY in all of these categories. See this comparison applet for details: http://www.siteuri.ro/dvorak/

Of course, these comparisons assume that you rest your fingers on the home row, so results will obviously be different if you rest your keys with the middle and ring fingers on a higher row, like you do. As for me, I rest my fingers on ASDF and JKL;, so Dvorak seems more natural to me. By the way, you mentioned hand alternation. Dvorak was designed with hand alternation (and several other ergonomic concerns) in mind, and has more hand alternation than QWERTY. For example, typing out Wikipedia’s article on the Tiger, 18.8% of the keypresses use the same hand as the previous keypress in Dvorak, while in QWERTY, 30.6% of the keypresses use the same hand as the last keypress. http://www.siteuri.ro/dvorak/SampleTextsResults/MarkTwain.html

Ah well, to each his own.

By: Jim Randall

Jim Randall — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:53:49 +0000

I found the Navy Experiment Report, it is obtainable from Randy Cassingham himself for $9. You can order it from him at http://www.dvorak-keyboard.com/dv-order.html He is going to make it available for purchase soon on Amazon.com in the near future.

Thought you would find this of value. I personally have purchased it for myself. I guess Dr. Strong did not destroy everything.