The QWERTY keyboard layout may be what you’re used to, but it’s not the best for your repetitive stress injury. DVORAK and Maltron keyboard layouts are designed to reduce overall finger movement and relieve stress on your hands. For some people, alternative keyboard layouts have been key to their recovery.

Lets start with a brief history lesson on how the QWERTY keyboard layout was created. In the 1870’s when typewriters were being invented, the biggest problem was the tendency of the typebars to clash and jam if struck in rapid succession. In other words typing too fast would jam the typewriter, so the inventor rearranged the letters until he found the perfect layout that spaced out the commonly used characters away from each other, thus reducing how often things get jammed. Some people say it was designed to make typing slower.

The Dvorak layout is a completely different key layout designed to address the problems of inefficiency and fatigue which characterized the QWERTY keyboard layout. The idea is that reducing hand movement when typing which will make us not only type faster, but cause less stress on our hands over time.

DVORAK places the most commonly used characters on the home row. Words like ‘the’, ‘has’, ‘do’, ’so’, ‘no’, ‘to’, ‘and’ can all be typed without moving your finger up or down a row. The next lesser common characters are on the upper row, and the least common are mostly on the bottom row. The idea is that reaching up to the next row is less stressful than reaching down a row. It’s also designed so that typing often alternates each button push alternating between hands, thus evening out the load a little bit better. I should note that for those who type with one hand, they also have single handed versions of the DVORAK layout that put the common characters all to one side.

There was never strong enough of a movement in society to shift everyone from the QWERTY to the DVORAK layout like some had hoped. Fortunately for you, you don’t have to live with the de facto standard (QWERTY) because every modern operating system including Windows & Mac have native support for turning you current keyboard into a DVORAK keyboard. You can even buy a keyboard with the DVORAK layout if you so choose, but it’s not crucial if you learn to touch type. Here’s instructions on how to set up DVORAK on a Windows PC or Mac OSX.

So what is the Maltron layout? Maltron Keyboards is a manufacturer of specialty ergonomic keyboards. They’ve been around since the 70’s and became well known for a concave keyboard design that follows the contour of your hands. Interestingly, their engineers invented a completely unique keyboard layout that’s specifically tailored towards reducing stress on your hands. This layout is best illustrated on their executive keyboard.

[.. The use of the Maltron letter layout reduces the amount of individual finger movements required to type and the vertically aligned keys reduce the sideways micro movements which are very stressful on the fingers. ..]

Unfortunately we don’t yet have a Maltron keyboard for testing yet, but we did procure a DVORAK keyboard and put it to the test.

The question we always ask at RSI Stuff is will this make a difference with my RSI? I went under cover to answer that question and at the time of writing, I have been on DVORAK for 6 months now. Since I was a very fast QWERTY touch typist, I have to say learning DVORAK was miserable. You just about have to give up your QWERTY skills to switch because your muscle memory really only has room for one layout per keyboard form factor.

It’s an all in or all out type of proposition, but if you’re very dedicated to learning, it’s worth it. I’d describe the impact to RSI as a small to medium difference depending on how exactly you hands hurt. You still have to push the same number of keys with the same pressure per push as before, so getting the right ergonomic keyboard is still very important. DVORAK simply reduces overall movement, which has a subtle and pleasant impact over time. Now that I’m over the learning curve I can see myself being pretty content to stick with using DVORAK.

After a full day of typing every day for 8 hrs, my hands don’t ache near as much as they used to. The change is subtle enough that I didn’t notice anything different 3 months in. However after ~6 months, it’s becoming evident that there’s something to DVORAK. I’ve read dozens of stories from people with RSI who made the switch such as this one and the consensus is that the learning curve is frustrating, but that long term the benefits are well worth it. Some people claim it cured their RSI, and others say it just helped a good bit. Results vary from person to person.

If you’ve already found the right keyboard, still feeling pain from the muscle movement, and you’re willing to do whatever you can to relieve the pain from typing, then switching to an ergonomic focused keyboard layout is quite likely a good move for you. For those who suffer from RSI, there’s dozens of small things you can do to make it better from stretching to massage to better keyboards to a better chair. Learning a different keyboard layout is one change you can make that often goes overlooked due to the learning curve, but it certainly has a positive impact.