I had switched from QWERTY to Dvorak but it never felt quite "right" and my WPM had decreased from 130wpm~ to 110wpm~. After about 6 months of being comfortable with Dvorak I made the switch to Colemak - much better. After becoming accustomed, I type at 150wpm~ comfortably and also keep that speed on QWERTY layouts which I still use at work.
The largest benefit of re-learning how to type on a new keyboard is it can make you aware of bad habits you had before and you can unlearn them.
Increasing WPM wasn't necessarily my goal - as I was focused more on the comfort of typing. I don't necessarily attribute the comfort to Colemak, I think it is closer to "learning how to type properly leads to comfort".
I highly recommend learning Colemak or even Dvorak - then switching back to QWERTY before making a final judgement. I don't think Dvorak is in any way superior to QWERTY, in fact, I think it is worse. Few people know how to type properly [0] and I think they find Dvorak to be better only because learning a new keyboard allows them to relearn how to type, break existing bad habits, and focus more on their ability to type leading to improvements in their typing. They then attribute their improvements to Dvorak rather than them learning how to type.
Dvorak "for programmers" being an exception as it was designed around programming and makes sense for such purposes.
[0] I consider "typing properly" to be 120+wpm with errors being uncommon. The average being 40-60wpm tells me that most people simply never learned how to type. (Should go without saying, but my "120+wpm is proper" doesn't include those with disabilities that affect their ability to type.)
I had switched from QWERTY to Dvorak but it never felt quite "right" and my WPM had decreased from 130wpm~ to 110wpm~. After about 6 months of being comfortable with Dvorak I made the switch to Colemak - much better. After becoming accustomed, I type at 150wpm~ comfortably and also keep that speed on QWERTY layouts which I still use at work.
The largest benefit of re-learning how to type on a new keyboard is it can make you aware of bad habits you had before and you can unlearn them.
Increasing WPM wasn't necessarily my goal - as I was focused more on the comfort of typing. I don't necessarily attribute the comfort to Colemak, I think it is closer to "learning how to type properly leads to comfort".
I highly recommend learning Colemak or even Dvorak - then switching back to QWERTY before making a final judgement. I don't think Dvorak is in any way superior to QWERTY, in fact, I think it is worse. Few people know how to type properly [0] and I think they find Dvorak to be better only because learning a new keyboard allows them to relearn how to type, break existing bad habits, and focus more on their ability to type leading to improvements in their typing. They then attribute their improvements to Dvorak rather than them learning how to type.
Dvorak "for programmers" being an exception as it was designed around programming and makes sense for such purposes.
[0] I consider "typing properly" to be 120+wpm with errors being uncommon. The average being 40-60wpm tells me that most people simply never learned how to type. (Should go without saying, but my "120+wpm is proper" doesn't include those with disabilities that affect their ability to type.)