I can't get over how strange the conventional way of typing is, being angled asymmetrically and encouraging twisting of the left hand. So I drew a few diagrams...
First the conventional way:
The angle of the keys on the right seems to promote comfortable use by the right hand, justifying the staggered rows. But the left side has completely the opposite effect, completely blowing that argument out of the water. You could rotate the whole keyboard clockwise a bit, but that's a poor solution to a pretty fundamental design flaw.
What if we just use different fingers for some of the keys?:
This actually isn't too bad. But it does mean learning the new layout. And if you're going to learn a new format, you may as well learn a real new format like Dvorak or Colemak. Even so, this might be useful to people who move between machines a lot.
What if we try to preserve which fingers hit which keys, but move those letters for comfort?:
Not too bad, but some important punctuation had to move. And it still requres learning.
How about doing the same to a ISO keyboard?:
The extra key gives more flexibility. I think this layout is much better than the modified ANSI one.
Would it be worth remapping the keys, swapping keycaps and adjusting to such a layout? Probably not, unless you only ever use one computer, and really want to stick with QWERTY. Changes like this ideally need to be done in hardware, at least to some extent.
Like I said at the start, just some random thoughts, I haven't reached any stunning conclusions.
