Could the smartphone be the secret to changing our keyboards?
An article in Forward Tick, “It’s time for Caps Lock to die”, revisits a long-standing keyboard issue we’re reminded of each time we make one of the most common mistakes when typing: failing to deactivate the capitalization lock.
Block caps is a throwback to the original design of the QWERTY keyboard and has been solved for smartphones, which directly eliminate the key, replacing it with two quick taps on the Shift key. We rarely type in capital letters, it uses space on the keyboard and usually creates more problems than it solves.
But getting rid of it means introducing changes to an interface we’ve been using for many years. Alternatives, such as the well-known Dvorak keyboard, have their supporters, but few people have bothered making the move. It all comes down to a tradeoff between the advantages of a simpler keyboard and having to learn how to use it. How long would it take us to stop making mistakes and adapt to a new approach?
At the same time, it seems clear that fewer and fewer people bother writing in capital letters, as well as having negative connotations in the online world. If we want to emphasize or differentiate a text, we now have alternatives such as bold, italics or underlining. Few people had problems adapting to the smartphone keyboard, perhaps because the change was…
