PSYCHOLOGY MASTER'S THESIS ABSTRACT

Eugene Stojack, Jr.

Industrial/Organizational
December 1991

An Alternative to the Qwerty Keyboard: Qwerty vs. Dvorak
 

    This study compared the standard typewriter keyboard (QWERTY) with a simulation of the Dvorak simplified keyboard (DSK).  The hypothesis predicted that typing performance for an operator using a simulation of the DSK keyboard would be at least 10% faster than typing speed on the QWERTY layout.

    A within-subjects design was used to test 20 subjects on both the QWERTY layout and a simulation of the DSK.  All typing was performed on QWERTY keyboard.  Subjects received five pseudowords as test material in the QWERTY condition.  The five pseudowords were then transformed to represent the finger movements required to type the same pseudowords on a  DSK keyboard.  These transformed pseudowords represented the subjects’ test material for the DSK test.

    No differences were found between the QWERTY and the DSK conditions.
    Additional research on keyboards is needed, although the use of simulated keyboards may not be appropriate for testing.

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