Keyboard Layout Quiz: Learn Keyboard Layouts and Designs

Study Notes

Keyboard Layouts and Alternatives

Dvorak layout: common letters under dominant fingers, biased towards right hand, 10-15% improvement in speed and reduction in fatigue
QWERTY layout: large social base of typists, produce market pressures not to change
Special keyboards: designed to reduce fatigue for RSI, one-handed use, e.g. Maltron left-handed keyboard
Chord keyboards: only a few keys, fast, compact, ideal for portable applications, e.g. wearables, phone pad, T9 entry
T9 predictive entry: type as if single key for each letter, use dictionary to ‘guess’ the right word

Handwriting Recognition

Text input using a pen and digitizing tablet
Natural interaction, problems:
- Capturing all useful information (stroke path, pressure, etc.)
- Segmenting joined-up writing into individual letters
- Interpreting individual letters
- Coping with different styles of handwriting
Used in PDAs, and tablet computers

Stylus and Light Pen

Stylus: small pen-like pointer, direct and obvious to use, may use touch-sensitive surface or magnetic detection
Light Pen: now rarely used, uses light from screen to detect location
Both stylus and light pen:
- Very direct and obvious to use
- Can obscure screen

Digitizing Tablet and Mouse

Mouse-like device with crosshairs, used on special surface
Very accurate, used for digitizing maps

Eyegaze Control Interface

Interface by eye gaze direction, e.g. look at a menu item to select it
Uses laser beam reflected off retina
Mainly used for evaluation, potential for hands-free control, high accuracy

Cursor Keys

Four keys (up, down, left, right) on keyboard
Very cheap, but slow, useful for basic motion for text editing tasks
No standardized layout, but inverted “T” most common

Printing in the Workplace

Fonts:
- Particular style of text, e.g. Courier, Helvetica, Palatino
- Size measured in points (1 pt ≈ 1/72”), e.g. 10-point Helvetica
Fonts (continued):
- Pitch: fixed-pitch (every character has the same width) or variable-pitch (some characters wider)
- Serif or sans-serif: serif (with splayed ends) or sans-serif (with square-ended strokes)

Memory and Speed

Short-term Memory (RAM): volatile, loses information if power is turned off, data transferred at around 100 Mbytes/sec
Long-term Memory (disks):
- Magnetic disks: store around 1.4 Mbytes (floppy) or 40 Gbytes to 100s of Gbytes (hard disk)
- Optical disks: use lasers to read and sometimes write, more robust than magnetic media
Moore's Law: computer speed doubles every 18 months, memory doubles every 12 months

Interacting with Computers

Input devices: text entry and pointing devices
Output devices: screen (small & large), digital paper
Virtual reality: special interaction and display devices
Physical interaction: e.g. sound, haptic, bio-sensing
Paper: as output (print) and input (scan)
Memory: RAM & permanent media, capacity & access
Processing: speed of processing, networks

Description

Explore the differences between the Dvorak and QWERTY keyboard layouts, as well as specialized keyboard designs like the Maltron left-handed keyboard and chord keyboards. Learn about the potential speed and fatigue reduction benefits of alternative layouts, as well as challenges in changing established standards.