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Comment by klausa | Hacker News Reader

One point from article that I found fasctinating/weird:

>The on-screen keyboard is QWERTY (which I don’t understand as that’s only useful for two-handed typing)

Personally, I hate when devices like that use anything different than QWERTY. I feel like I can translate what my fingers hit on regular keyboard to what I see on screen and input with thumbsticks, whereas when I'm presented with ABCDEF keyboard I feel like I'm 3yo again, hunt-and-pecking.

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I think neither suit the context very well. I would have thought MS to come up with something more intuitive to use, like Steam's Daisy Wheel: http://i.imgur.com/l7Rmw.png

It's not ABCDEF (good for learning), nor QWERTY (good for keyboards), it's something else, adapted to the current interface. It may not be perfect, but it's a good way to start.

If you layout the letters in 3 horizontal rows, I expect it to be QWERTY. I suspect most people (such as yourself) agree. I have seen onscreen keyboards (such as with my DVR) that layout the letters more like a square. While you are hunting-and-pecking it does have the advantage of being faster to traverse using directional buttons. I believe the Apply TV does the same thing: http://www.podcastingnews.com/content/wp-content/uploads/200...

I hate QWERTY for anything other than two-handed typing, as it's muscle memory I rely on, which is completely absent when using a controller. I would have preferred A-Z, or a single row of A-Z as iPlayer does, or the spiral that Beyond Good & Evil uses, or basically anything other than QWERTY.

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