The layout of the keyboard is a fascinating example of what economists call collective switching costs. QWERTY actually makes us write slower. So why we are still using it?
Old typewriters
First typewriters had their letters laid down alphabetically. It was easy to learn and remember where all the keys are. But this soon became a source of problems. Typewriters have letters that are on the end of metal keys. When you type the letter, the metal key hits an ink ribbon that touches paper and in consequence leaves a beautiful, vintage mark. But if you type too fast, metal keys jam and get stuck.
Well, there has to be a solution to that! Christoper Sholes thought of one. He made a list of the most common letters used in English and he simply rearranged the keyboard to put the most common pairs of letters apart on the keyboard. That’s how QWERTY was invented.
QWERTY layout was meant to slow down typists.
This solution was perfectly understandable then, when technology didn’t leave any other way to deal with the problem.
Improvements
Some time after QWERTY was introduced, the problem of jamming was greatly reduced due to new design. Well, today we definitely don’t have any metal keys attached to ends of our plastic letters on computer keyboards. But even thought QWERTY was slowing every typist down, any other layout never made it.
Why we are still using QWERTY?
One answer laid down by economists is very simple: the costs we all would bear to learn a new keyboard are simply to high to make the transition worthwhile.
Ask yourself this question: why do you buy a QWERTY keyboard even though other layouts are more efficient?
It’s all down to the human element of the typewriter-typist system. Trained typists already know QWERTY, you already know QWERTY. Imagine how much time you would have to spend on learning how to use any other layout till you get to the stage you’re now with QWERTY.
Even though QWERTY is slowing us down, switching to any other system would slow us down even more.
Marta Stelmaszak
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