The standard Qwerty layout has had it shortcomings, which is why we developed Xpert layout which was designed to be more efficient and enable faster type speeds.
X | P | e | R | T | Y | U | I | O | J |
Q | S | D | F | N | H | A | e | L | K |
Z | W | C | V | B | G | M | , | . | ? |
KEYBOARD TYPE | Year | EASY to USE | FAST | Opposing key pairs |
XPeRT | 2003 | yes! | yes! | 83% |
Dvorak | 1936 | no | yes | 80% |
Standard | 1878! | - | no | 50% |
KEYBOARD TYPE | opposite hand key pairs | same hand key pairs | percent opposite |
XPeRT | 2199 | 444 | 83% |
Dvorak | 2124 | 519 | 80% |
Standard / Qwerty | 1330 | 1313 | 50% |
The dominant factor in typing speed is use of opposite hands for key sequences. Try - sososo, ththth, elelel, ... Far more key sequences are struck by fingers on opposite hands using the XPeRT keyboard (83%) versus Qwerty (50%), making XPeRT highly optimized for speed.
Qwerty was designed in the late 1870s to slow down typing (to prevent jamming of mechanical keys). A Dvorak layout from 1936 has good sequences, but moves 24 letters and is hard to learn. XPeRT moves only two common letters (A+N) and is easy to use
The XPeRT Keyboard design is based on the novel principle that typing speed is dominated by keystrokes struck by opposite hands, rather than by an emphasis on the middle or home row. The phrase "this is the end" is much easier to type than "as great as that". Try the sequence SOSO or THTH (in lower case) and see how fast it is, even though those letters appear on different rows. These sequences can be typed at around 100 wpm.
The XPeRT Keyboard greatly increases such opposite hand keystroke combinations.
Key Pair Stats | H | L | M | N | R | S | T | V | Y |
A | 66 | 41 | 30 | 92 | 46 | 49 | 64 | 22 | 21 |
E | 117 | 41 | 50 | 66 | 162 | 57 | 65 | 59 | 10 |
I | 35 | 34 | 15 | 88 | 22 | 53 | 72 | 13 | - |
O | 20 | 18 | 33 | 44 | 65 | 29 | 85 | 7 | 58 |
U | 2 | 14 | 7 | 12 | 44 | 27 | 28 | - | - |
Vowels and consonants are interleaved in English and such key pairs are most common. Some exceptions are: TH at 149 and OU at 98, which were also used to define the XPeRT Keyboard.
Keyboard Type | opposite hand key pairs | same hand key pairs | percent opposite |
XPeRT | 2199 | 444 | 83% |
Dvorak | 2124 | 519 | 80% |
Standard / Qwerty | 1330 | 1313 | 50% |
Home Row | 1191 to 1497 | 1452 to 1146 | 45% to 57% |
Alphabetic | 1280 to 1437 | 1363 to 1206 | 48% to 54% |
Using the Key Sequence Statistics, opposite hand keystrokes were calculated for different keyboard layouts. XPeRT, at 83% is much better than Qwerty, at 50% for opposite hand use. XPeRT is also slightly better than Dvorak for opposite hand sequences, although only two frequent letters move on XPeRT, rather than virtually all letters, as occurs on Dvorak. How is this possible?
Analysis of the patterns in the Key Sequences caused critical letters A + N to move to a new side of the keyboard. A second key was dedicated to the letter E to complete the process. (There is no need to move all frequently used letters to the home row, major changes that are hard to learn.) With the three elegant changes identified here, the XPeRT Keyboard goes from digraph disabled to speed enabled.
Some rarely used keys move to accomodate other changes: J,K,X & Q are used less than 1 % of the time, as a group. Moving these keys has a fairly small impact on typing.
Home Row oriented keyboards, including the Dvorak keyboard from 1936, focus on the reduction of finger reach and potential finger strain, placing frequently used letters on the home row. This makes transition from the existing Qwerty keyboard difficult for both hunt style and touch typists. Fortunately, it is not the only way to speed typing!
The phrases "this is the end" and "as great as that" have been compared for ease of typing. Typing all on one hand can be quite slow, especially if the same finger hurdles from the top to the bottom row. In contrast, reaching across rows does not slow down typing speed, when using opposite hands
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