This design was born of an attempt to address the following issues with sub-TKL keyboards:
1. One of the main problems with custom 60% layouts is non-standard modifier key sizes.
2. The main hurdle to designing smaller keyboards is trying to reduce the key count as much as possible while retaining functionality for the intended use.
3. Since my exposure to a split space bar, I’ve realized that the thumbs are ridiculously underutilized during the process of typing.
4. The pinkies of the right hand have to extend rather far, in comparison to the other fingers, to reach the modifiers. Assigning the modifier keys to the pinkies requires ulnar deviation.
The result of this design process is named the Mod Space layout.
I eliminated standard modifier keys altogether and remapped those functions to two standard 1u keys operated by the thumbs, making this design composed entirely of standard 1u keys. With fingers on the home row, the thumb keys would be closer to the knuckles than the tips of the thumbs. The thumb keys would be 5-way clickable sliders with Cherry MX-compatible stems. Activating a hotkey such as ctrl-alt-del would be performed by sliding the left key down, pressing and holding the key down, sliding the key up, then sliding the right thumb to the right. Mapping shift and function to the upper positions of the thumb keys brings the fingers closer to the top rows of keys, though possibly making the use of those functions a little awkward when using them in conjunction with the bottom rows.
The symmetry is thrown off by the pipe/backslash key. I remapped those characters to the tilde key but that overloads the key and could make using it awkward. Aside from the challenge of properly incorporating the 5-way sliders into the wiring matrix, I think the greatest obstacle to actually building this would be modifying the firmware to recognize and translate the signals from the thumb switches.
An alternate choice for this layout name was Hadoukey due to the similarity of the keyboard hotkeys to Street Fighter joystick moves, but I ultimately decided on Mod Space. Though, thinking about it now, if the thumb keys are durable enough, they might prove useful for remapping game controls to have something approaching dual joysticks (albeit, digital) on your keyboard.
