TNWMLC - Worst Keyboard Layout

This is typing hell.

Most Difficult Layout

Using knowledge for evil is sometimes a lot more fun than using it for good. By having a model of typing effort, we can ask the question "What layout has the largest effort?".

I applied the effort minimization simulation to QWERTY, but this time asked carpalx to maximize typing effort. In other words, find the layout which is hardest to use. The result is the finger-breaking TNWMLC, which increases effort by almost 90% over QWERTY.

Figure 1. The canonical QWERTY layout.

Figure 2. If carpalx is subverted to maximize typing effort - the result is the worst layout TNWMLC.

TNWMLC spawns Brazilian Fashion Line

In a collaboration that brings keyboard layout design and fashion together — what a combination! — Brazilian designer Julia Valle used the carpalx worst layout (TNWMLC) as a design element in her Winter 2011 line.

The work was shown in a show in Rio de Janeiro. Julia accented the clothes with beautiful necklaces made out of parts of an 1956 Smith Corona typewriter.

This project is nearly an cosmic alignment of eclectic interests. Keyboard layout research is subverted to generate the most difficult English layout, which is then transformed into beautiful clothing design. This cross-pollination of ideas has particular meaning to me, since I once dabbled in fashion photography.

TNWMLC - typing effort

The effort of TNWMLC is nearly 2x that of QWERTY. A huge penalty increase of 180% is seen - look at that finger-based penalty increase of 200%!

model	keyboard	total effortrel%	effort contributionsrel%
			base	penalties	path
mod_01	qwerty	3.000	1.00033.3	1.00033.3 R0.408 F0.408	1.00033.3
	tnwmlc	5.610 (+87.0)	1.44025.7 (+44.0)	2.80450.0 (+180.4) R0.749 (+83.6) F1.230 (+201.5)	1.36724.4 (+36.7)

TNWMLC - detailed statistics

Stroke statistics for TNWMLC are frightening, even when compared to the already suboptimal QWERTY. Hand asymetry is 51% - the left hand is absolutely hammered ... just look at those left hand stroke runs! For ~70% of key strokes, the left hand is used for two or more successive key strokes. The bottom row is used 45% of all strokes and the home row is used only 13% of the time. The pinky is used 34% of the time and the middle finger is extremely underused (9%).

carpalx effort optimization	keyboard name	statistics					effort
		rowh	rowb	hand asym	finger freq	cumulative run distribution	mod_01
none	QWERTY standard QWERTYUIOP[]\ ASDFGHJKL;' ZXCVBNM,./	0.34	0.15	0.15	0.10 0.21 0.27 0.42	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 rhl 0.42 0.69 0.83 0.91 0.95 0.97 0.99 0.99 1 rhr 0.61 0.83 0.94 0.98 0.99 1 1 1 1 rh 0.51 0.76 0.88 0.94 0.97 0.98 0.99 1 1 rrt 0.55 0.78 0.91 0.96 0.98 0.99 1 1 1 rrh 0.68 0.91 0.97 0.99 1 1 1 1 1 rrb 0.94 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 rr 0.68 0.88 0.95 0.98 0.99 1 1 1 1 rf 0.89 0.99 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 rj 0.68 0.83 0.94 0.96 0.99 0.99 1 1 1	3.000 1.00033.3% 1.00033.3% 1.00033.3%
maximized effort	tnwmlc TNWMLCBPRH[]\ SGXJFKQZV;' EADIOYU,./	0.13	0.45	0.51	0.34 0.24 0.09 0.34	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 rhl 0.29 0.47 0.60 0.70 0.78 0.84 0.88 0.91 0.94 rhr 0.82 0.97 0.99 1 1 1 1 1 1 rh 0.56 0.72 0.80 0.85 0.89 0.92 0.94 0.96 0.97 rrt 0.65 0.92 0.99 1 1 1 1 1 1 rrh 0.90 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 rrb 0.74 0.93 0.98 0.99 1 1 1 1 1 rr 0.73 0.94 0.98 1 1 1 1 1 1 rf 0.82 0.96 0.99 1 1 1 1 1 1 rj 0.63 0.68 0.83 0.85 0.91 0.93 0.96 0.96 0.98	5.610 1.44025.7% 2.80450.0% 1.36724.4%

The uses of TNWMLC are limited, and include practical jokes and alertness drills. TNWMLC may also figure prominently in the manager's Employee Disciplinary Action Toolbox.

TNWMLC - word difficulty

Using the typing effort model described in Carpalx - Typing Effort, I ranked 6-12 character words by their corresponding effort (effort is normalized to word length) using a dictionary of 480,000 words (/usr/share/dict/words, Red Hat 4 Enterprise). Below is a table that shows sets of words representing effort percentiles.