Dvorak Simplified Keyboard

The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard is an alternative keyboard layout designed by August Dvorak and William Dealey in 1936 to maximize typing efficiency by placing the most frequently used letters on the home row. Unlike QWERTY, which was designed to prevent mechanical jamming, Dvorak was designed for ergonomic speed and demonstrated faster typing rates in controlled studies. Despite its technical superiority, Dvorak failed to displace QWERTY, becoming a paradigmatic case of switching cost lock-in in technological systems.

Dvorak did not lose to QWERTY because it was worse. It lost because superiority in isolation is irrelevant in systems with network effects. The lesson is not about keyboards. It is about the systematic undervaluation of coordination problems in technology assessment.