I like the idea of difficulty/strain map used to create Workman layout –
http://www.workmanlayout.com/blog/I think it could be improved. Below is my take on difficulty level for keys on grid keyboard like TypeMatrix.
Original OJ's difficulty map:
Notes:
My map is more fine grained than the one of OJ as I believe differences in difficulty/strain among fingers are more subtle than the scale 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4 can reflect. My map uses 9 step scale instead of the original 5 step scale.
I left the original values for home keys for index and middle fingers as typing these keys is the most comfortable.
Ring finger being weaker than index and middle fingers results in its difficulty raised to 1.5 from the original 1 for home row key. As pinky is even weaker its difficulty was raised to 2 from the original 1.5 for home row key.
Difficulties for index fingers reaching horizontally was raised to 4.5 from the original 3 as horizontal movement is very unnatural kind of movement for fingers (without moving whole hand) and this is not mitigated by index fingers being the strongest ones. The rise of 1.5 and not less comes from the fact that I find horizontal movement more difficult than reaching diagonally which I left at the original value 4.
I find diagonally folding index fingers more difficult than both diagonally reaching and moving horizontally that's why I raised difficulties to 5 from the original 4.
I don't agree with the original difficulty of reaching with index finger being greater than difficulty of reaching with ring finger so I raised difficulty of reaching with ring finger to 3.5 from the original 2.
I find folding middle finger really difficult due to its length, more than reaching with index finger so I raised this difficulty to 3.5 from the original 3 making it 0.5 greater than difficulty of reaching with index finger.
I find reaching with pinky more difficult than folding it due to its shortness so I raised difficulty of reaching to 4.5 from the original 4.
I'm curious if you agree with my adjustments and if not then what would you change?
The map was created with
http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/Below is source in json which you can import and modify:
[{x:1,c:"#ff3d3d",a:5,f:7,fa:[2]},"4\n\n\n\n\n\n4.5",{c:"#ffa0a0"},"2\n\n\n\n\n\n3.5",{c:"#00c100"},"2\n\n\n\n\n\n2.5",{c:"#00ff03"},"3\n\n\n\n\n\n3",{c:"#ff7a7a"},"4\n\n\n\n\n\n4","4\n\n\n\n\n\n4",{c:"#00ff03"},"3\n\n\n\n\n\n3",{c:"#00c100"},"2\n\n\n\n\n\n2.5",{c:"#ffa0a0",fa:[1]},"2\n\n\n\n\n\n3.5",{c:"#ff3d3d",fa:[2]},"4\n\n\n\n\n\n4.5"],
[{x:1,c:"#12b40e"},"1.5\n\n\n\n\n\n2",{c:"#10a20d"},"1\n\n\n\n\n\n1.5",{c:"#128e0e"},"1\n\n\n\n\n\n1","1\n\n\n\n\n\n1",{c:"#ff3d3d"},"3\n\n\n\n\n\n4.5","3\n\n\n\n\n\n4.5",{c:"#128e0e"},"1\n\n\n\n\n\n1","1\n\n\n\n\n\n1",{c:"#10a20d"},"1\n\n\n\n\n\n1.5",{c:"#12b40e"},"1.5\n\n\n\n\n\n2"],
[{x:1,c:"#ff7a7a"},"4\n\n\n\n\n\n4","4\n\n\n\n\n\n4",{c:"#ffa0a0"},"3\n\n\n\n\n\n3.5",{c:"#00c100"},"2\n\n\n\n\n\n2.5",{c:"#ff0000"},"4\n\n\n\n\n\n5","4\n\n\n\n\n\n5",{c:"#00c100"},"2\n\n\n\n\n\n2.5",{c:"#ffa0a0"},"3\n\n\n\n\n\n3.5",{c:"#ff7a7a"},"4\n\n\n\n\n\n4","4\n\n\n\n\n\n4"]
ps.
I originally posted this at
http://www.workmanlayout.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=72 but it seems that forum has very few users so I decided to re-post it here.