Ergonomics vs. Efficiency
Since the first introduction of the typewriter keyboards and the adoption of the QWERTY standard throughout businesses in the 19th century the debate of ergonomics vs. efficiency have persisted with regard to keyboards. Dvorak's attempts in 1936 to move the design standard more in the direction of ergonomics failed mainly due to a de facto standard already being in place. Dvorak would later argue that his keyboard layout was both more efficient and more ergonomic (Cassingham, R.C., pp. 12-16) and sponsored research including a series of studies that measured overall typing speed. As suspected the results showed the Dvorak keyboard was significantly faster in touch typing tests of experienced typists. Conversely Microsoft's ergonomics research on their approach to slanting and providing wrist support in an attempt...
The conclusion then is that the QWERTY keyboard continues on as a market standard and companies including Microsoft and others are striving to make keyboards more efficient as well, while guarding the health of their users, a major concern in the 21st century.
References
Cassingham, R.C. The Dvorak Keyboard, Free-lance Communications, Arcata, CA., 1989 ISBN 0-935309-10-1. 326 pages.
Peter Lewin. "The Market Process and the Economics of QWERTY: Two Views. " Review of Austrian Economics 14.1 (2001): pp. 65-72. ABI/INFORM Global. ProQuest. 4 Dec. 2007
MacKenzie, I.S., & Zhang, S.X. An empirical investigation of the novice experience with soft keyboards. 2001. Behaviour & Information Technology, 20, 411-418.
