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The Dvorak Keyboard
J. C. Bowen, MIT personal web page, n.d.
Read the originalRead on October 16, 2026
- What it is
- A short, widely linked page that summarizes the Navy and General Services Administration studies of the Dvorak layout.
- How much weight it carries
- A personal page, not a peer-reviewed paper, so treat it as a summary. It points to the 1996 Reason magazine article and to Liebowitz and Margolis for the detailed critique.
Facts taken from this source
- Dvorak estimated that an average typist's fingers travelled 12 to 20 miles on a QWERTY keyboard, and that the same text needed only about one mile on Dvorak.
“Dvorak estimated that the fingers of an average typist in his day travelled between 12 and 20 miles on a qwerty keyboard; the same text on a Dvorak keyboard would require only about one mile of travel.” (Dvorak's claims on finger travel)
- A 1950s General Services Administration study found that after sufficient training, Dvorak typists matched their previous QWERTY speeds but did not surpass them.
“found that after sufficient training, Dvorak typists were able to match their previous qwerty speeds, but not surpass them.” (1950s GSA study)
- Dvorak reported that retraining the Navy typists to the Dvorak layout took an average of 52 hours to bring their Dvorak speed up to their QWERTY speed.
“it took an average of only 52 hours of training for those typists' speeds on the Dvorak keyboard to reach their average speeds on the qwerty keyboard” (Navy study, 1944)
- Dvorak reported that at the end of the Navy study his typists were 74 percent faster on the Dvorak layout than on QWERTY, and 68 percent more accurate.
“By the end of the study their Dvorak speeds were 74 percent faster than their qwerty speeds, and their accuracies had increased by 68 percent.” (Navy study, 1944)
- The U.S. Navy selected fourteen typists for a 1944 study of whether retraining them to the Dvorak layout was feasible.
“the U.S. Navy selected fourteen typists for a 1944 study to assess whether Dvorak retraining would be feasible.” (Navy study, 1944)
- A summary of the Dvorak evidence says later investigation showed the Navy experiments were at best biased and at worst fabricated.
“subsequent investigation has shown that at best, the experiments in the Navy study were biased, and at worst, fabricated.” (Navy study)