Why is it so messy in my keyboard?

Have any of you ever wondered why keyboard's letters are distributed the way they are? Yes, which order do they follow? Shouldn't it be better and more logical to put them in alphabetical order?


Initially in 1860s, the characters on the typewriters were arranged in alphabetical order. At that time a typewriter used to work using a set on the end of a metal bar which strikes the paper when its key was pressed. This procedure was not at all compatible with fast typing because letters that were placed close together on the keyboard became tangled with one another, forcing the typist to manually unstick the type bars. This also caused staining the document frequently and jams in the typewriter machine. A business associate suggested splitting most commonly keys to speed up typing, so that they don’t get tangled so often. This layout became very popular and when computers were invented the keyboards inherited it. Now, it is known as QWERTY layout in honor to the six first letters of it and it has become the world wide most common type of keyboard. 

QWERTY was designed for English language and avoiding typewriters' problems wasn't it's only goal. It also pretended to achieve the following:

• Alternate hands while writing (allowing one hand to move into position while the other hand strikes a key increases velocity)
• Avoid typing more than one letter with the same finger.

However, despite being the most popular and widespread keyboard QWERTY is not the best key layout. We must say that it has a bunch of problems: 

• Many common letter combinations require awkward finger motions.
• Many common letter combinations are typed with the same finger.
• Many common letter combinations require a finger to jump over the home row.
• Many common letter combinations are typed with one hand while the other sits idle.
• Most typing is done with the left hand, which for most people is the weaker hand.
• Many common letter combinations are typed by adjacent fingers, which is slower than using other fingers.

With the intention of solving this problems in 1936 by Dr. August Dvorak created a whole new keyboard layout called "Dvorak Simplified Keyboard". Note that all the vowels are placed in the left part of the keyboard which guarantees hand alternation while writing (We have to keep in mind that any syllable has at least a vowel )

Despite this layout allows users to type faster, QWERTY is and will keep being much more accepted. Just another example of convention winning over usability.