Fourteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

During the nineteenth century, industrialized nations pushed economic integration upon developing countries. To be fluent in Western ways meant colonized civilizations needed to adopt the technology, and forms of communication ushered in by the industrialized powers. For example, the roots of computational communications can be traced to the QWERTY type system created by Christopher Lathan Sholes. The layout of this system was designed for Latin-script alphabets and originate in the nineteenth century. The layout has become ubiquitous with keyboards and smart devices globally. As an artifact originally crafted by an American inventor for an English speaking audience, the functionality of the QWERTY keyboard falls short when translated for cultures with different writing systems and reading orientations. This artifact functions as an example of technology that, in order to access, requires cultural conformity. Utilizing one culture over another as a template for prototypes could lead to service gaps when internationally distributed. The future of design must take into account not only the production of artifacts but also its ability to evolve with the lived cultures and social relationships of its global consumers. This paper provides a brief history of the development of the QWERTY keyboard and its expansion to non-Western cultures as a means to investigate the impact of Western Imperialism from a more global, inclusive perspective. Using the case studies of the Korean and Persian alphabets, we will present an overview of QWERTY’s past and current technological applications and the challenges its structure causes for other languages and cultures.