The QWERTY layout is, I grant you, an illogical mess. I'm happy to hear your arguments that Dvorak is the one true way. Or that Colemak is several percent faster. But QWERTY is a standard now. Everyone uses it on their laptops and phones. It is used everywhere.
Except, it turns out, streaming services.
They use alphabetic keyboards. Worse, each one has a unique layout!
Want to search for that movie staring that guy who was in the film with that one who does the adverts for that thing you like? Here's the keyboards on the various streaming services I have:
Amazon Prime
Three rows. A-M. N-Z. Then a full number row 1-0.
Apple TV
A 6x7 grid. All lower case letters, with numbers appearing directly after the letter z.
BBC iPlayer
A 10x3 grid for the letters, and a separate number pad which goes 1-4, 5-8, 9-0 - unlike any other number pad I've seen.
Channel 4
The same letter grid as Amazon, albeit in upper-case. The space and delete are at the top, rather than the bottom.
Netflix
(I'd learned how to take screenshots from my FireStick by this point.)
The same A-F grid as Channel 4 - but space and delete are reversed.
UKTV Play
The same A-F grid as C4 and Netflix. But this adds a "Clear" button. Oh, and numbers start from 0, not 1.
ITVX
The same A-J grid as the BBC, but space is bigger and delete is somewhere else. Also, the numbers are on the top row like a QWERTY keyboard!
BTW, does anyone need a # & £ button on a search?
Others
Feel free to supply your own screenshots for whichever streaming platform you prefer.
WTAF?!
What I don't understand is why they're like this. I assume each of these services have conducted extensive user testing to see what layout people prefer, and which is faster for the average user, right? Do none of their users have a smartphone? Do they turn away from their smart-TV and handwrite letters with a quill and ink?
I get that an A-Z layout is more logical than QWERTY. But surely there are more people who use QWERTY than not? Perhaps the technophobes generate more support calls? Maybe it's just too complicated to ask users if they want a choice of layout?
But this is my plea to anyone who has to display a virtual on-screen keyboard. Just use QWERTY!