Why are the keys on a computer keyboard arranged the way they are?
The QWERTY keyboard layout was designed so that successive keystrokes would alternate sides of the keyboard so as to avoid jams in manual typewriters. First designs of manual typewriters using keyboards with letters on alphabetical order could not keep up with the speed of fast typers and the QWERTY keyboard layout was designed to reduce jamming. There is a commonly held belief that the QWERTY arrangement was designed to slow down typists to prevent these clashes but the opposite is true. by re-arranging the letters, common combinations could be used more quickly without the arms clashing. The QWERTY keyboard layout survived the era of electrical typewriters and the digital age because it was the first standard design. Did you know the longest English word that can be written using the letters on the top row of a QWERTY keyboard is typewriter? I’ve included a list of my sources for you to reference.
