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Review: Ergo Interfaces Evolution Keyboard
The keyboard itself, as seen in this older photo, is split and angled, with the touch pad in the upper-left corner of the right-hand section. As you can see from the image, it's a full size keyboard -- complete with numkey area, real function keys, and all that.
The primary difference between the version I tested and this older one is that rather then being mounted on arms of the user's chair, a la the older Evolution, the new keyboard sits on the desk.
There's a whole steel/metal mounting system that you have to install on the underside of your desk. Luckily enough, I use the TJ series desk from Herman Miller, which came with the appropriate mounting system already installed. Otherwise, it'd be a remove-everything-from-desk, flip-over (because the mounting system is heavy) and careful-work ordeal. You need to hold the mount perfectly still while you drill in the eight screws that hold it in place.
However, since I already had a keyboard/mouse mounting tray installed, the tray for the new keyboard fit right in place -- no fuss, no muss. I suspect that it's a standard size, so if you have an average-looking mounting system in place, you may be able to just use that.
Again, the only big difference between this and the other Evolution keyboard is that it's made for the desktop, rather than chair mount. Doesn't sound like much, does it? Believe me, it is. One my big complaints with the chairmounted Evolution was that you couldn't roll your chair over to another part of the room, because of the length of the cables hooked to the computer. And moving the arms of your chair loosened the screws holding the keyboard in place. Over the six months or so of Rob using it, the screws slowly stripped till they could barely hold the keyboard up. The desk mount with this version makes a big difference in this department -- far less hassle.
My other big complaint about the keyboard, though, hasn't gone away: the mouse sucks. It's a small touchpad surface, and the mouse buttons are horribly non-responsive. It's also a two-button mouse, so you have to chord for the 3rd button, and having non-responsive buttons means that cutting and paste becomes a difficult process, under any *nix. And because the pad is so small, you really have to turn up the sensitivity to be able to move around at 1024 x 768. There was software included with it, but for Win9X only, so that didn't really help out much.
So, the mouse is frustrating. The desk-mount fix is good, but I'm switching back to a more regular setup, until the mouse situation gets better. But if you have do wrist problems, or want to take an ergonomic approach before they appear, this keyboard is well suited for that. And if you are running mostly Windows, then the mouse issues become less of any issue -- no need for the 3rd mouse button, and the software on the disks will mean better support.
You can find more information out from:
ErgoInterfaces
Evolution
Keyboard
This keyboard is made by Kinesis Corporation, maker of other excellent ergonomic products like the Maxim keyboard I'm using right now. I've coveted the Evolution for some time now, but as the reviewer says, the trackpad sucks, and because the keyboard is so wide, your mouse is far enough away to become an ergo issue in itself. My Maxim doesn't have a pesky numeric keypad, so my trackball can snug in close where I don't have to reach to far for it.
When I started to get the mentioned wrist/hand pains, instead of buying a funky keyboard, I just switched layouts. DVORAK as worked wonders for me, typing is no longer painful and is actually easier....
But then, the learning curve is greater than just buying a new keyboard. Hm.
The pain around my knuckles and center of the top part of my hand got bad enough that I had to have an intern read/write e-mails for me at work. And rather then being a senior systems admin, I did staff training for various technical topics. Yippy. I took two weeks off of typing, and did a lot of research. This is what I ended up doing:
1) Kinesis Contour Keyboard . I was highly skeptical of this keyboard, being $250... but my hand pains were enough that I would try anything. I got it for home, the one with dual-dvorak/qwerty caps. I now swear by this keyboard so much that I would rather give up my Athlon and go back to a 486/33 if it was the only way to keep this keyboard. I then had work buy me one. It's hard to learn a new keyboard if it changes depending on where you are :) The primary advantage of this keyboard is no matter what keys you hit, your hands never move. Things that don't move, don't get stressed. I've also got some good photos of it's inards and some closeups.
2) Dvorak Keyboard Layout . I took the dive when I bought my Kinesis and immediately began learning Dvorak. Having my keyboard labeled with dual-dvorak/qwerty keys helped me a lot. Un-learning 12 years of QWERTY was by no means easy, but worth it. It was very rough to learn (took about 3 weeks to get back to normal speed), but because your fingers don't have to move as much for english words, my fingers are under a lot less stress. Doesn't help much with perl though, but Ruby's nicer syntax means my hands contort less anyways. Oh, you don't lose your qwerty skills. Whenever I type on a normal keyboard, my hand things qwerty. It associated Dvorak with the Kinesis keyboard.
3) Contour Systems Perfit Mouse . This was almost as important as the keyboard. It amazed me what a difference this made. These mice are custom to your hands. I got two 3-button mice for 7-inch hands, one lefty and one righty. I use the left handed mouse at home (my natural hand), and the right handed at work. It took some training on my right hand, but the balance makes it much less hurtful. I still get pains going to Microsoft mice or trackballs. I can't stress how excellently designed these are for your hands. Rather then pushing the end of your finger to click, you apply a very light pressure in the middle of your fingers. Less movement is less stress is less pain.
4) xwrits . This is software to remind you to take keyboard breaks. You can install it straight from /usr/ports/deskutils/xwrits in FreeBSD. This is the .xsession command line I use:
xwrits typetime=50 +finger=japanese +clock +mouse +beep +breakclock +multiply +top &
I'm going to have to set it so that locks me out of my workstation soon. I often will type "killall xwrits". Anyways, that's what I ended up doing for my situation. I can now type again quite happily, though I still get pains on normal qwerty keyboards like the one I'm on ATM at a friends house. Hand damage really sucks, I miss being able to use laptops without pain. Now I have to drag this Kinesis around.
IF YOU FEEL PAIN - STOP - TAKE BREAKS - FIX YOUR SITUATION! SEE A DOCTOR!. I cannot stress this enough. Not fixing this earlier has cost me.
For those among you not easily convinced by simple Dvorak testimontials, here's a Java applet that hands out the breakdown for any sentence or paragraph pasted in,
t ml
http://www.acm.vt.edu/~jmaxwell/dvorak/keyboard.h
If you ever do get CTS or some other RSI, you'll gladly pay whatever someone asks for a device like that. Of course, if people were a little more aware of ergonomics, maybe we could prevent the injuries in the first place.
Folks, if you spend any significant amount of your workday typing, you owe iut to yourself to investigate your options.
as a solution to the cable problem, use wireless!
and as a solution to the screw problem, use better screws!
seriously though, I've been using a normal Logitech wireless "natural" keyboard for months, and I used to have hand problems, now I don't! It's great, I have a comfy chair and a lap-desk thing, so I can move all over the place, free of cables. I attached a gel pad to the front of the keyboard (it came with a ?! stupid hard plastic wrist wrest) and it's my saviour. Heck, I even brought it to France with me. Don't need $300USD either, this setup cost me just under $100.
However, I'm still interested in getting a lazy boy setup! Hook me up with one of those, mounted dual keyboard, computer integrated into the base and a LCD screen that can be moved (via an arm of course) to anywhere in front of my view (i.e. so if I'm laying down I can move it to be in front of me), and I'd pay $$$$$$ for that!
-- Telek
If God gave us curiosity