The QWERTY keyboard layout
The most-used letters are scattered across the keyboard in an order that looks random.
Category: Keys & screens
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Fault. It is history we never moved on from.
The layout comes from the 1870s Sholes and Glidden typewriter and was refined as typewriters evolved. It was not optimised for how we type now, but millions of people learned it and it stuck.
The myth: The popular story says it was scrambled to slow typists down so the type bars would not jam. Researchers have found little evidence for this; one line of research points instead to the needs of telegraph operators transcribing messages.
Source: Fact or fiction: the legend of the QWERTY keyboard, Smithsonian Magazine.