I believe that the "QWERTY" keyboard was developed because the arms for the letters when typing common words would get jammed together. So in the late 1800's someone developed this layout so to minimize the potential jamming(thus improving the productivity of the typists) and getting the typed product out faster with no damage to the typewriter.
Also, typewriter is the longest word written possible using only the top row of the keyboard.
So please, how would you design a keyboard that would be faster and better than the one that has been used for well over 100 years? Not only are you bucking an established layout but common knowledge and practice...