How bad is QWERTY, really? A review of the literature, such as it is

> key layout is a minor part of the ergonomic harms of keyboard use; keyboard type (i.e. ergonomics of design) and posture/positioning both seem more important (70% confidence).

Fully agreed. I was lucky enough to be acquainted with an elderly piano player when i was learning to type; they emphasized "you're holding your hands out and wiggling your fingers all day, that's not natural or easy" and the importance of posture and ergonomics to me. Also knew a person who had a >200 WPM rate on manual typewriters from a long career as a typist; they had a similar set of habits and postures. Their examples and advice have been invaluable. "Wrists UP!"

A problem I see with these optimized layouts is the they ignore mobile, which is probably a bigger use case today then traditional typing. The rules totally change when you’re thumb typing on a small touch keyboard. For instance vowels spaced more then a key aapart help improve word prediction from typing mistakes).

Pretty bad, seeing only about 10% of people are willing to use it.