Experience with DVORAK

By Simon|Getting Things Done, Technology|2 Comments

Ok, so I spent the last couple of weeks with the DVORAK layout.  The experience was enlightening, if not physically and mentally challenging at times.  My conclusions from my limited trial:

Pros:

• DVORAK is clearly superior for typing English text.  Even after a couple of days many common words felt more natural than QWERTY.
• Converting to DVORAK on a QWERTY keyboard forces you to type correctly (using the correct fingers in the correct position) rather than relying on the “hunt and peck” method that many of us use.

Cons:

• Keyboard shortcuts – CTRL-C and others become a two handed operation (and are generally more difficult if using QWERTY keyboard with the DVORAK layout)
• Programmer commands – I found when coding, or using the command line, the new layout was not as efficient for many commands (e.g. lots of use of repeated i, l and s’s which is difficult)
• From what I read, experienced QWERTY-ers rarely reach their previous WPM count using DVORAK.  Given that I’ve been using QWERTY for the best part of 25 years, I’m wondering whether it’s too late

Overall, while it was a great experience that I thoroughly recommend, I don’t see myself switching.  Although QWERTY is not the most efficient layout by far, it falls into the VHS/BetaMax argument – because hardware and a lot of software takes advantage of the QWERTY layout, the benefits of switching outweigh the costs for many people that have a mix of English and code. With that said, this whole experience has taught me to closely examine how I type today – and to see whether I could be using the QWERTY layout more efficiently than I currently do.