Christopher Latham Sholes designed the ubiquitous QWERTY keyboard layout in the early 1870s specifically to separate commonly paired letters and prevent mechanical typewriters from jamming.

A closer look

Christopher Latham Sholes designed the ubiquitous QWERTY keyboard layout in the early 1870s specifically to separate commonly paired letters and prevent mechanical typewriters from jamming. Before this layout became the standard, early typewriters had keys arranged in alphabetical order, which resulted in fast typists clashing the mechanical metal arms together on a regular basis. By scattering the most frequently used vowels and consonants across different rows and sides of the board, the design forced users to alternate hands and drastically slow down their typing speed. Today, we are still using a century-old user interface intentionally engineered to hinder efficiency, which perfectly summarizes the entire philosophy of modern software development