I love keyboards. Perhaps because I spend so much time using them? Maybe because they enable my creativity and empower me to wake a living? For whatever reason, I love keyboards and have spent an insane amount of time optimizing how I use them.
At some point in my career, I struggled with RSI and looked for ways to decrease the discomfort I experienced using a mouse and keyboard. I took a potentially obvious strategy to reduce mouse-induced RSI: stop using it. However, this means I use the keyboard even more. I take reducing RSI almost as seriously as a good haircut. 😉
Keyboard manufacturers believe they can fix your RSI issue with their special keyboard. When I started looking for solutions to my RSI, I waded through marketing material from several vendors. But would their designs reduce RSI? The answer for me was a mix of yes and no. I eventually learned what worked for me and many others.
The TLDR of keyboard ergonomics for me is listed below. Read on for a fuller explanation and more detail.
- Split keyboards helped.
- Tenting helps.
- Better key switches reduced strain and produced a more satisfying experience.
- A smaller distance between keys helps.
I’m not basing my ergonomic claims above on medicine or physiology. Instead, I’m summarizing some of my findings from decades of experience and experimentation. Nevertheless, here’s a good article about ergonomics from an even more fantastic website for keyboard enthusiasts.
MS Natural Keyboard
One of the first ergonomic keyboards I used was a Microsoft Natural keyboard. It had a split layout and a slight slope upwards in the middle of the board. This slope upwards in the middle is often called “tenting”. I found the Natural keyboard much more comfortable than regular keyboards. One downside was the keys were sometimes difficult to press and felt like they would wedge on themselves as I pressed them down. The keyboard wore out relatively quickly, and I started looking for something better when it died.
Goldtouch Adjustable Ergonomic Keyboard
A split keyboard probably increased ergonomics. My wrists were more comfortable, and I didn’t get sore so rapidly. I also liked tenting. I wanted to try more of what I had, so I selected a Goldtouch adjustable keyboard for my ergonomic experiment’s next phase. This keyboard is split with a unique hinge mechanism that lets users tent and rotate it to many angles. It allowed me to experiment with different configurations and find what truly helps reduce RSI for me. I was able to test more extreme designs than before.
I went through several of these keyboards. Unfortunately, the hinge mechanism always eventually failed, and the keys were even more frustrating than those of the Microsoft Natural keyboard. In addition, Goldtouch keyboards’ quality worsened, so I stopped buying them.
Kinesis Advantage
One of my favorite keyboards to this day is the Kinesis Advantage. It’s a split keyboard with a cupped ortho-linear layout. Along with radically contoured keys, it also employs six keys in a cluster for each thumb. In addition, it uses Cherry MX Brown key switches, which I like much more than membrane switches. Not only do mechanical keyboards reduce RSI for me, but they increase my typing satisfaction with a more pleasant feel and sound.
The learning curve for the Advantage keyboard felt high to me. I remember barely being able to use it for the first week or so. The ortho-linear layout was a big part of why it felt so awkward. It felt like I had to articulate my fingers through a channel to reach each key. I quickly realized I had been obliviously using the wrong finger to press specific keys. I had been typing wrong my whole career! While it didn’t matter before, it mattered now that I had this keyboard because pressing keys with the wrong fingers was uncomfortable and inefficient.
I acclimated to the Kinesis thumb clusters quickly. They were a game changer and provided a lot of relief for me since I use modifier keys extensively and do a lot of chording (see Emacs). I eventually became quite fond of the keyboard. It effectively reduced RSl better than any other keyboard I used before.
My only problems with the Advantage were: 1) fear it will stop working someday, 2) low portability, and 3) limited reconfigurability.
While the Advantage Kinesis keyboard is programmable, I eventually wanted more from it than it could provide. So I decided to open it up to see if I could modify it. It looked easy to hack. So I reverse-engineered it and replaced its brain with a Teensy controller and my firmware. I added layers, macros, custom keymaps, and other experimental features. But eventually, my work schedule got the best of me, and I stopped tinkering with the firmware.
I eventually noticed a few bugs in my firmware and let a short list of unimplemented features wither and die on the vine. So how could I drag my keyboard the last bit across the proverbial finish line of near perfection? By leveraging someone else’s work, of course. I stumbled across QMK firmware on github. I got it running without further hardware modifications, and it has been a great replacement.
Using and experimenting with a highly adjustable keyboard led me to a few conclusions about ergonomics. One of my fundamental strategies for reducing strain and increasing productivity has been to minimize hand movement; stay close to home row. The shape of the Advantage key wells reinforced an idea I learned when playing guitar: reduce the distance you move your fingers between notes. I remember how much easier playing quickly became once I realized this; everything felt more effortless and smooth. The concave shape of the Advantage keys results in a smaller distance between neighboring keys and other possible benefits, like reducing the force required to actuate a key. There’s better alignment of fingers and key switches because of this configuration.
The lessons I learned from experimenting with this keyboard prompted me to use layouts with lower key counts and leverage thumb clusters even more.
Ergodoz EZ – Close But No Cigar
I’ve tried other keyboards since the Advantage. The Ergodox EZ seemed like a great keyboard. Ultimately it felt too big, which is a deal killer for me. Most notably, the thumb clusters are spaced too far from the rest of the keys. I had hoped it would be more portable so I could use it while traveling, but it’s too big to slip comfortably into my briefcase. It doesn’t tent very effectively on its own. I was not too fond of the wrist wrests, and they would likely have been even more useless if I could have properly tented the board. I do like the online configurator and being able to hot-swap key switches. But ultimately, the pros didn’t make up for the things I didn’t like. You may like it more if you have larger hands or different priorities.
Adieu
That’s all I want to write about keyboards this time. There’s so much more to cover! I want to talk about custom keyboards for beginning keyboard enthusiasts and point you to the more radical side of things, where people design and build their keyboards. My most recent project is developing and printing Apple IIc-inspired keycaps for my custom keyboard. Check back for more! Let us know about your projects and favorite keyboards in the comments.