I've occasionally thought about trying the Dvorak keyboard layout to improve my writing speed. However, I wonder if the speed gain is really worth the initial learning curve.
I'm curious if anyone knows of studies that tested people switching from Querty to Dvorak. Specifically, how long does it take the average person to recover their previous speed, and how much does their speed improve overall?
I would also be interested in any anecdotal evidence by those who have made the switch (or attempted it and reverted back to Querty).
Answer
Personally I switched to Dvorak about six years ago, and I've found it to have been a net positive over all. My typing speed is about the same as before, though oddly my error rate has gone down. On the other hand, I haven't had any serious wrist pain since I switched.
There are some downsides to switching.
- It seems to take about two months to get back up to the speed you were before changing over.
- Your QWERTY typing speed will suffer unless you put time into working with both.
- You're also going to have to learn how to type without looking at the keyboard as the odds are pretty good you're not going to be able to change the key labels. (You can find blank keyboards if the mismatch is a problem)
If you do try to change over, I'll warn you that the third week or so will be the worst. You'll kind of know where everything should be but you'll have a hard time finding it. Typing will be a huge pain for a few days as everything starts to properly shift around in your head. If you can get through it though, it will get better after that.
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