My thoughts:
- Generally has some of the right ideas (column-oriented stagger, split halves, tenting, moving some keys from pinkies to index fingers, adding a mouse pointer device, extra tall F key keycaps)
- I like a lot of the ideas about macros, etc. from later on in the page.
- Weird choice for numpad positioning, not aligned with home finger positions
- I prefer shifting the up and down arrows down by a row
- I don’t understand the specific positioning of the trackpoints, seems like they wouldn’t be very usable simultaneously
- Stagger on the inward column of index finger keys has been unhelpful in my tests. Having the two index finger columns flush is the best compromise to keep the keys reachable, assuming both columns have the same number of keys.
- The stagger for the pinky is very aggressive; in my testing on a handful of people, no one would accept stagger of even 3/4u between ring finger and pinky, and preferred 1/2u stagger (my preference is about 3/4u); 5/4u stagger is going to be much too much for any general audience (though it might work for one specific person)
- Bottom row pinky keys, especially the far corner key, is going to be a pretty big stretch for just about any hand shape.
- Likewise the F keys in the pinky columns are only going to be usable by the ring finger I think. My recommendation would be, if there must be F keys, to shift them all inward by one column, toward the index fingers / away from the pinkies.
- I don’t think this thumb section actually has especially comfortable movements. I’ve tried several similar prototypes, and IMO pressing the bottom two thumb keys in this design is going to be fairly uncomfortable. The top two are alright, but still not at the most natural angle to accomodate any of the thumb’s natural directions of movement.
- I’d advocate trying for substantially more tenting than this, and maybe adding some adjustability in the tilt (I don’t know what the creator’s desk setup is like)
- I think a palmrest is unnecessary, though it does look cool
It looks like these are just renders. Anyone know if this keyboard was ever built, or if any physical prototypes were tried?
In any event, it’s exciting that there’s activity on Russian forums. It would be great if any Russian-speaking geekhackers would try to engage with those communities, and vice versa. Sounds like they have some neat ideas.
