Viswanathan K's Thoughts

My 6 year-old loves the Computer Science period. Maybe it’s the teacher, maybe it’s the chance to go to a lab… who knows? Anyways, I wondered how she’d learn to type or get familiar with the keyboard layout. It’s not like a kid that age has anything to type, so what’s the incentive to struggle and learn, I thought. And then I saw this keyboard familiarization app called Tux Typing listed in her school book. I installed it on the laptop. As letters enclosed in fireballs dropped from the top, she had to find and hit those letters on the keyboard before the letter slammed into the buildings at the bottom of the screen. Fun way to familiarize oneself with the layout of a keyboard, I thought. Soon she had mastered it. Like any good pushy parent, I then increased the speed at which the letters fell. Inevitably, she lost all her lives quickly. Then, instead of practicing to master the higher speed, this was her solution: She: “You call out the letters as they fall. I’ll find ...

As my dad continued to insist that he wanted a keyboard for the iPad, I cringed. Nobody types much on an iPad, I said. The iPad is for surfing, viewing mails, watching videos and checking Facebook, I explained (which, by the way, is exactly how my mom uses it). It is not for doing work, I pleaded. All to no avail. Steve Jobs must be turning in his grave, I thought. My dad argued that while he may be in the minority on how he wants to use the iPad, surely it can’t be a microscopic minority. Why else were there so many iPad compatible keyboards out there, he asked? Why else does Google throw up so many keyboard options? Good questions. Ironically, the answer to both questions lies in the existence of the Internet. The surfing of which was the “intended use” of the iPad! In the pre-Internet era, people with non-mainstream tastes in anything (music, movies, topics, and, as it turns out, uses of iPad): 1)       Could not find each other easily; 2) ...

The existing QWERTY keyboard was designed in the typewriter era to slow down typing. To prevent the typist from hitting keys too fast; because then they would get jammed. Ok, pretty much everyone knows that. But now the typewriter is dead. And we have moved to the electronic keyboards on our touchscreens. Keys jamming is no longer a problem; and yet we stick to the QWERTY. Because everyone is familiar with it already, we don’t want to rock the boat and switch to a more efficient layout. So are we doomed to stick with the QWERTY because of legacy reasons? There is hope in the horizon. After all, we now live in the brave new world of apps for (smart)phones. Where developers write apps for free. Where users are willing to try something new; and drop it if it isn’t good. No money changes hands; so both developers and users are willing to experiment. Including experimenting with the (touchscreen) keyboard. Notice how many smartphone users use only their (two) thumbs to type?...