Time for a change? Can we after so used to the current one?
Until the next time, cheers.
John Lambie's alternative to the QWERTY keyboard. Photo: Supplied
John Lambie's keyboard in use on a tablet. Photo: Supplied
Until the next time, cheers.
New keyboard layout easy as ABC
We have been using it since 1878, firstly on the humble
typewriter and now most of us carry one around with us every day in the
form of a smartphone.
But is it time to end our love affair with the QWERTY keyboard?
Brisbane-based entrepreneur John Lambie first started working
on an alternative to what he calls the "dysfunctional" QWERTY keyboard
more than 25 years ago, but has seen a real opportunity for people to
break their QWERTY as they abandon keyboards for smartphones.
Mr Lambie is in the United States shopping around his
keyboard, which has been designed for optimum use with just one finger
or to split itself in two to make typing easier with two thumbs.
The keyboard is in alphabetical order with the letters split
over five rows instead of three and it is able to be flipped for easier
use by left handed people.
"I've been playing with ideas, doodling things in the margin as it were for over 25 years," Mr Lambie said.
"I was inspired by a lecturer at university who had severe
cerebral palsy and therefore very limited use of his hands and fingers
and he would always, in every single lecture, find some way to say some
derogatory remark about QWERTY.
"He said it really is the worst piece of usability design ever.
"It's become so entrenched unfortunately that the human race is almost stuck with it."
Mr Lambie pointed out the QWERTY keyboard was originally
designed to slow people down and space the most used letters far apart
so typewriter arms would not stick together.
He is developing a keyboard for Android phones (Apple and
Microsoft will not let developers change the keyboard of their
smartphones), which should be ready for download as an app between
August and September.
Mr Lambie is targeting developing countries, such as India
and the Philippines, where people have not grown up with QWERTY
keyboards in their homes, but are buying up smartphones that have been
made in countries such as China on the cheap.
Mr Lambie said what people in developed countries had was the
change in keyboard had already been heralded and proven easy to learn.
"I think the change now has been heralded by the advent of,
perhaps the most popular keyboard that has ever been used, and has
already paved the way for a new keyboard," he said.
"What people don't realise is there is already a second
keyboard out there that is already way more popular than QWERTY that
requires no lessons, that people pick up straight away, and it's the
same keyboard that kick started the mobile revolution.
"Do you know what keyboard I am talking about? The one you have on your phone, the number pad."
Mr Lambie said while from an efficiency perspective the
number pad was a "nightmare" – citing the need to press a button four
times just for the letter S – the beauty of it was it was alphabetic.
"This is the missing link, this is the one when you talk to
people you say 'oh but there is another keyboard, the one that kick
started the mobile revolution' and they look at you funny," he said.
"...because we adopted it so naturally, it was easy to use,
but it didn't require lessons to start it, it was essentially a two to
three day learning curve.
"It was clunky to start with but essentially it was easy to use because of the alphabetic type writer."
Queensland University of Technology health faculty senior
lecturer Charles Worringham, who specialised in human motor control,
said it was possible for people to master another keyboard after
learning QWERTY, but the challenge is motivating them do it.
"There are some layouts which are better than QWERTY, no
question about that, but the problem is the trade-off, well, several
trade-offs," Dr Worringham said.
"One is the rate of learning a new configuration compared to
the benefits so the benefits have got to be really big to make it worth
learning a new layout.
"...most folks get frustrated before they get to the point
(of learning a new layout) if they persisted they might have an
advantage, a text entry speed advantage, but they're not usually huge
advantages and most people just don't have the motivation to stick with
learning a new layout."
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