Xpert Keyboard - Overview, Concepts, and Current Status

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	,	.	?

Xpert Keyboard Layout

XPeRT Keyboarding vs the Standard

KEYBOARD TYPE	Year	EASY to USE	*FAST*	Opposing key pairs
XPeRT	2003	yes!	yes!	83%
Dvorak	1936	no	yes	80%
Standard	1878!	-	no	50%

Comparison

The standard mechanical keyboards were designed to prevent jamming, this meant in compromising faster type speeds.
Xpert keyboard layout addressed this issue by utilizing opposite hand sequencing and making it easy to use.
Independent testers have seen higher typing speed with our layout.
We made it easy to transition from the old layout to Xpert layout.

A Comparison of Opposite Hand Keystrokes - the Major Speed Factor

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

How Powerful are Opposite Hand Key Sequences?

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 Sequence Statistics: ER, AN, TH, ...

This table lists frequent two key sequences in English, also called Digraphs.
Key pair frequencies are shown relative to a total value of 3320.
The occurence of EH and HE is shown as the sum 117.
Their use in English is 117 / 3320 x 100% = 3.5% of all keystrokes.
Data has been taken from a 1936 patent by August Dvorak and William Dealey.

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.

Comparison of Opposite Hand Keystrokes - the Major Speed Factor

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.

More on Key Sequences and Reach

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

XPeRT Keyboard Buyer Guides and Keyboard Reviews

Our missions goes beyond creating layouts, we constant review the current keyboards and create in-depth buyer guides. We have long form guides covering keyboards of specific types, we also cover individual brand reviews. These resources would definitely help you find the best keyboards depending on your requirements.