Forget QWERTY - new KALQ layout speeds up typing on tablets A new keyboard for tablet computers promises to speed up typing by a third - by ditching the traditional QWERTY layout.

A new keyboard for tablet computers promises to speed up typing by a
third - by ditching the traditional QWERTY layout.

Researchers at St Andrews University and Germany's Max Planck
institute used computers to find the "perfect" layout for thumb-typing
on a touchscreen.
The new system, dubbed KALQ, after the order the keys appear in the
keyboard (in the tradition of QWERTY), allows people to thumb-type 34
per cent faster on tablets.

Touschscreen typing is slow - most users only manage 20 words per
minute - because keyboards are designed for 10-finger typing on
physical keyboards.

KALQ is designed for thumbs - created with computational optimisation
techniques to search among millions of potential layouts before
identifying the best possible one.

Dr Per Ola Kristensson, Lecturer in Human Computer Interaction in the
School of Computer Science at the University of St Andrews, said: "The
legacy of QWERTY has trapped users with suboptimal text entry
interfaces on mobile devices."

The new keyboard will be available as a free app for Android.