The ubiquitous QWERTY keyboard layout works well enough for ten-finger touch typing (though Dvorak proponents may disagree).
But what if you're typing a text message on a mobile phone? Those fiddly little non-tactile touchscreen "keys" are impossible to touch-type on, so I have to revert to the one-finger "hunt and peck" method, which is slow. I wonder if an alternative keyboard layout would make things easier.
So, my challenge here is to design a keyboard layout (two-dimensional arrangement of the 26 letters of the English alphabet) that maximizes the frequency for which adjacent letters in English words are on adjacent keys of the keyboard. So, frequent letter pairs, like T-H or A-N, should be next to each other.
I will post at least one of my own answers, but will not give myself the checkmark.
Defining “adjacent”
- On a hexagonal grid or a staggered rectangular grid, where each key touches six others, all six are considered “adjacent”.
- On a straight rectangular grid, the four horizontally- and vertically-adjacent keys are considered fully adjacent, and diagonally-adjacent keys get half credit for being adjacent.
Letter-pair frequency
This is calculated from my personal e-book collection.
Since “adjacent” is a symmetric operator, there is no point in distinguishing, for example, the TH in “THe” and “THat” and “wiTH” from the HT in “brougHT” and “daugHTer”. So, I'm combining their stats here. Letters within a pair are arbitrarily listed in alphabetical order.
Double letters (e.g., LL or EE), which would have no impact on optimizing the keyboard (since you just hit the same key twice in a row), are excluded from the calculation.
All figures are rounded to the nearest 1/100 of a percent, and letter pairs whose frequency would round down to zero are excluded from this list. Thus, only 203 of the 325 possible letter pairs are represented.
The score for a keyboard layout is the sum of the percentages below for letter pairs that are on adjacent keys on your keyboard. (But remember that diagonally-adjacent keys on a rectangular grid only get half-credit for being adjacent.)
Please include your score in your answer.
- EH = 5.27%
- HT = 5.07%
- ER = 3.43%
- AN = 3.12%
- AH = 2.35%
- DN = 2.33%
- FO = 2.24%
- ES = 2.19%
- IN = 2.08%
- OR = 2.03%
- EN = 2.00%
- OU = 1.99%
- NO = 1.96%
- AL = 1.70%
- OT = 1.70%
- DE = 1.68%
- AS = 1.67%
- IT = 1.66%
- EM = 1.64%
- AR = 1.57%
- AT = 1.55%
- EL = 1.42%
- IS = 1.42%
- HS = 1.41%
- EV = 1.28%
- OY = 1.27%
- ET = 1.19%
- IL = 1.13%
- HI = 1.11%
- AM = 1.07%
- MO = 1.06%
- IR = 1.00%
- GN = 0.99%
- AE = 0.98%
- ST = 0.97%
- RU = 0.90%
- BE = 0.84%
- AC = 0.77%
- IW = 0.77%
- HO = 0.72%
- DI = 0.71%
- NT = 0.71%
- OS = 0.71%
- AD = 0.63%
- IM = 0.63%
- CE = 0.62%
- CO = 0.61%
- OW = 0.59%
- LO = 0.57%
- AI = 0.54%
- DO = 0.54%
- EP = 0.53%
- RS = 0.53%
- DR = 0.52%
- EY = 0.52%
- HW = 0.50%
- EI = 0.49%
- EF = 0.46%
- RT = 0.46%
- OP = 0.45%
- SU = 0.45%
- TU = 0.45%
- AW = 0.44%
- FI = 0.44%
- CH = 0.43%
- AV = 0.42%
- DL = 0.42%
- EK = 0.42%
- AY = 0.41%
- EW = 0.39%
- NU = 0.39%
- IO = 0.38%
- GO = 0.37%
- IV = 0.37%
- NS = 0.37%
- FR = 0.36%
- AB = 0.35%
- EG = 0.35%
- AF = 0.30%
- AG = 0.30%
- LP = 0.30%
- CI = 0.29%
- GI = 0.29%
- PU = 0.27%
- GH = 0.26%
- BU = 0.25%
- OV = 0.25%
- BR = 0.24%
- IK = 0.24%
- MY = 0.24%
- PR = 0.24%
- BO = 0.23%
- NR = 0.23%
- PS = 0.22%
- AP = 0.21%
- AU = 0.21%
- LU = 0.21%
- AK = 0.20%
- CN = 0.20%
- GU = 0.20%
- KO = 0.20%
- FL = 0.18%
- LY = 0.18%
- TY = 0.18%
- EO = 0.17%
- DS = 0.16%
- GR = 0.16%
- RY = 0.16%
- BL = 0.15%
- CU = 0.15%
- LS = 0.15%
- CR = 0.14%
- HP = 0.14%
- LT = 0.14%
- BI = 0.13%
- AO = 0.12%
- CK = 0.11%
- FT = 0.11%
- HR = 0.11%
- HU = 0.11%
- KN = 0.11%
- PT = 0.11%
- TW = 0.11%
- CT = 0.10%
- IP = 0.10%
- JO = 0.10%
- MU = 0.10%
- CL = 0.09%
- DU = 0.09%
- MP = 0.09%
- MS = 0.09%
- RV = 0.09%
- BM = 0.08%
- CS = 0.08%
- GS = 0.08%
- MR = 0.08%
- SY = 0.08%
- BY = 0.07%
- EU = 0.07%
- GY = 0.07%
- IU = 0.07%
- IY = 0.07%
- NW = 0.07%
- PY = 0.07%
- SW = 0.07%
- AJ = 0.06%
- EJ = 0.06%
- EX = 0.06%
- FU = 0.06%
- KR = 0.06%
- KS = 0.06%
- LV = 0.06%
- NY = 0.06%
- AZ = 0.05%
- JU = 0.05%
- QU = 0.05%
- BS = 0.04%
- EZ = 0.04%
- GL = 0.04%
- IZ = 0.04%
- LR = 0.04%
- DG = 0.03%
- DW = 0.03%
- FS = 0.03%
- HN = 0.03%
- IX = 0.03%
- KL = 0.03%
- LN = 0.03%
- RW = 0.03%
- DM = 0.02%
- FN = 0.02%
- FY = 0.02%
- GT = 0.02%
- HY = 0.02%
- TX = 0.02%
- AX = 0.01%
- BH = 0.01%
- BN = 0.01%
- BT = 0.01%
- CM = 0.01%
- CX = 0.01%
- CY = 0.01%
- DT = 0.01%
- DY = 0.01%
- EQ = 0.01%
- GM = 0.01%
- HL = 0.01%
- HM = 0.01%
- IJ = 0.01%
- IQ = 0.01%
- JN = 0.01%
- LM = 0.01%
- LW = 0.01%
- MN = 0.01%
- MT = 0.01%
- NQ = 0.01%
- NV = 0.01%
- OX = 0.01%
- OZ = 0.01%
- PX = 0.01%
- QR = 0.01%
- TZ = 0.01%
- UZ = 0.01%