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Why are the keys on the keyboard not arranged in alphabetical order?
The arrangement of keys in a typing keypad that we have today is nearly a century and half old. Initially, in the olden days the typewriter machines did have the keys arranged alphabetically but because the machines were too slow in comparison to the speed at which users learned to master them, it presented a different problem.
Swift Users
The users turned out to be way faster than the machines and this resulted in the mechanical character arms getting jumbled up all over. Therefore, the makers of typewriters in response to customer experience and feedback designed a completely new keyboard where the keys have been rearranged with the primary objective of slowing down the typists.
Character Arms
This didn't altogether stop the character arms getting jumbled but In order to reduce the number of times they got jumbled, it was decided to evenly space out the most frequently used letters across the keyboard. The maker of keyboards possibly thought best not to alter the layout of the more modern keyboard even though the problem of character hands getting jammed didn't exist any longer. Since the transition from typewriters to computers overlapped in good time, it was rather smooth and this could have been the reason why the key arrangement remained the same.
Scientific Reason
Today, there would be no logic in putting the keys in alphabetical order even though the mechanical problem of the character hands getting jumbled isn't there. Experience of different users suggests that it would make more sense to have the most commonly used keys next to the strongest fingers. Experimental keyboards using this model were proven to be much faster than the commonly used Querty keyboard with characters spaced out to deal with a problem dating back to the era of the mechanical typewriter. However, the market isn't quite prepared for innovations, at least as far as the keyboard is concerned.
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