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Stop Trying To 'Innovate' Keyboards, You're Just Making Them Worse
FuzzNugget writes "Peter Bright brings the hammer down on the increasing absurdities of laptop keyboard design, from the frustrating to the downright asinine, like the 'adaptive keyboard' of the new Lenovo X1 Carbon. He says, 'The X1's Adaptive Keyboard may have a superior layout to a regular keyboard (I don't think that it does, but for the sake of argument, let's pretend that it does), but that doesn't matter. As long as I have to use regular keyboard layouts too, the Adaptive Keyboard will be at a huge disadvantage. Every time I use another computer, I'll have to switch to the conventional layout. The standard layout has tremendous momentum behind it, and unless purveyors of new designs are able to engineer widespread industry support—as Microsoft did with the Windows keys, for example—then their innovations are doomed to being annoyances rather than improvements.' When will laptop manufacturers focus on perfecting a standardized design rather than trying to reinvent the wheel with every new generation?"
Anyone else find that you cannot get 16:10 laptops these days unless they're made by Apple?
Damn the "movie nerd" 16:9 ratio!
Please don't put cursor keys where the right shift key should be. Nothing like pressing cursor-up in a console window when you meant to type a capital letter.
The worst keyboard I ever used was the Logitech MX5500. Poor design all over - it was clear that whoever designed it was focussing on ideas that sounded nice, but were ergonomically unfeasible. Stupid things like putting keys underneath the keypad such that pressing them from a natural posture caused cramps, or removing the numlock key and replacing it with some calculator function integrated with the LCD display. Perhaps they forgot that computers powerful calculators in of themselves? The list went on - I wrote an eight page engineering design critique (I teach college mechatronic design) and sent it to them. The logitech PR person who answered it said they'd send it on to the design office. From what's come out of there since, I'm sure they just sent it straight to trash. :P
Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
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Many Europeans are already used to using different keyboards at different times. As we speak I'm typing on a Danish-layout keyboard remapped to US-English. Which is... almost like US-English, except that the Enter key is vertical rather than horizontal, so \| is located to the left of enter rather than above it (can't remap the physical shape of the keys...). Oh, and `~ is to the left of Z. Sometimes I use a UK keyboard, which is somewhat different yet again.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Too much "innovation" is appearance only, or the act of making gee-whiz gadgets that look like they might be far out. The clueless buying public falls for it every time.
Back in the 1990s, I used one of those Microsoft ergonomic keyboards for a little while... but then I learned that it was in fact putting more strain my hands. Back to the old tried-and-true 100-year-old typewriter style configuration.
Every time I've tried any kind of tricked out keyboard, the result has been the same. It doesn't work better than the original. For innovation to be actual innovation, it must solve a problem and do so in the context of reality, not merely be a nifty concept or look.
Futurist Traditionalism
The "Windows key" location existed before on other systems, it was called the "meta" key. Apple had the Apple logo in that place, Sun keyboards had the diamond logo, even the Symbolics machines had the key well before Microsoft even talked about ripping off DOS.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
I would pay a lot of money for a backlit, Microsoft Natural style keyboard. Googling indicates I'm not alone. I don't care about gaming, but when I walk into my home office at night and sit down, I want to see where all the keys are. And I'm used to the Microsoft Natural keyboard shape from many years of exclusive use.
You getting this, Microsoft / clone manufacturers?
Take a look at
http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/concept/
http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/tactus/
and other things from this family.
This is an _adaptive keyboard_.
Yes, it is plain horrible for coding or text editing, but idea behind it is to support some more niche programs for video/photo editing, 3d modelling etc, with keyboard changing icons on keys depending in which mode are.
Input devices are the most important part of any computer, yet we don't worry about keyboards/mice on desktops, because we know we can swap them with something we prefer, at will. With laptops, we're stuck with the cheap junk that's included. And worse, we're stuck with the economics laptop makers are under, and we don't want to pay $500 extra for a high-end laptop, just to get a $20 keyboard we like.
If laptop makers standardized on a few sizes of keyboard, and made them easy to slide in and out and swap with a different model, life would be good...
It's POSSIBLE for laptop makers to get it right and include a great keyboard with their laptops. There are innumerable awesome small keyboards out there. In fact, I use nothing but ultra compact keyboards for my home computers, because the ergonomics of super-flat are best, and the lack of a keypad on the side makes reaching over for the mouse vastly quicker and easier. To make an awesome laptop, start with a keyboard like this one: http://typematrix.com/
But the odds of them doing that are far too slim, and there's just too little incentive to ever expect it to happen. The input market is far too specialized. Instead, just make the parts interchangeable, and not only will your core customers be happy with their input options even on the cheapest laptops, but your products will also sell better to non-English speakers, who want a very different keyboard.
It's long overdue.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
As a Linux user it's sometimes necessary to cleanly reboot the machine through the Kernel call Alt+PrintScreen+ REISUB, I don't see how to do that on this laptop?
cubic yards of standard keyboards are out there for you. some of the rest of us appreciate some choice and variation. carry a standard USB keyboard for those times you have to use someone else's machine and don't like their keyboard.
This is the same principle that makes heavy customization of OS installations not worth while. If you have to move between a large number of machines, you can't count on that certain editor being installed or your favorite key mapping configured. After a while, you give up and get accustomed to the least common denominator.
OK, the poster has a valid argument perhaps within the Slashdot community, whom in a given day, may traverse their hands across a dozen or more keyboards in their various tasks, but the argument to manufacturers falls completely flat.
Believe it or not fellow keyboard jockeys, the other 95% of the planet will buy a laptop...to use that laptop, pretty much exclusively, for the next 4-5 years. The average person does not know nor care about the day-to-day keyboard issues of the 5%.
To be honest, I'd rather see vendor variety. Backlight keys, increasingly intelligent designs and layouts, and even the return of the buckling-spring design have all come about through constant innovation.
Let me put this to you another way. Within your demands for a "standard" design, do you really want to subject the world to iKeyboard as the standard? Be careful what you ask for, for the 95% control your fate.
In my opinion, the best keyboard for over a decade is the "whatever the cheapest keyboard Microsoft is selling".
Currently it's this: http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/p/wired-keyboard-200/JWD-00046
It's wired.
It has all the keys, all in the usual place, all actual clickable buttons.
It doesn't have RSI-inducing wrist-rests.
It isn't colored like a rainbow.
It doesn't bend in contortionist ways.
It doesn't have a "shutdown" button you accidentally hit every once in a while.
I've been through multiple iterations of this "cheapest MS keyboard", and they're all good.
(When MS software finally croaks, their hardware division will still be going strong).
Some other brands have similar keyboards too, also cheap and also better than the more expensive keyboards.
With keyboards, as you go up in price, you go down in usability.
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The only thing I would ever want from a laptop is a keyboard that's in the ergonomic 'split' style. Yes that would be butt-ugly and probably make the laptop itself the size of an elementary school desk, but with RSI issues I can't type on a standard keyboard for very long. Yes you can plug a standard ergo USB keyboard into a laptop, but that setup requires a desk as it is too big for my lap. Since I'm desk bound with that, I just use the desktop computer I already have.
Meanwhile, I'm noticing that decent ergo kbs are getting scarce for desktops too. Back 10 or 15 years ago there were dozens of brands and all of them cheap and good, now there are only 2 or 3 to chose from with crappy key layouts and they last about a year or so.
do() || do_not();
I agree, the ever changing keyboard layout is frustrating. The worst ever offender is macbook keyboards where they made the power button a keyboard button (and in the worst place, where a 'del' or 'backspace' button should be).
However, the keyboard linked in the article actually has some nice ideas, for example replacing the totally useless caps lock with 'home' and 'end'. It would be a great keyboard for programmers.
.
I'm not sure about the rest of it, but I HATE the caps lock key. I NEVER use it. I'm glad someone has thought about how it's mostly a nuisance these days for typing in passwords, especially on a crowded laptop keyboard where it's easy to miss-type and hit a key without knowing it. Seriously, who uses freaking caps-lock?
(Oh, and why yes, I am a software developer and use all kinds of strange keys, but certainly not caps lock). ~ occasionally, but not enough to get me cranked off. I also certainly don't expect a hardware maker to cater to the needs of the 1 person in several thousand that writes software for a living. I run linux too, but I rarely use the function keys. I really have rather a rare need to go to a text console.
Frankly I think it's people like this guy that hold back any sort of innovation. The standard keyboard layout is archaic, and has needed to change for years. People that use computers these days are everyday people who don't need a freaking scroll lock key. The laptop I'm currently using has home and end on the top right, and doesn't have a scroll lock key at all. I didn't even notice that until just now and have had the laptop for a year. My only real complaint is it's too tight, and not comfortable. But it's a very small laptop that's light and really portable (perfect for travel, or just having a spare machine I can grab in my bedroom when I need it).
AccountKiller
...what people do, as LONG AS THEY REMOVE THE CAPS LOCK! Yes, I typed that holding shift. The first thing I've done on every KB since 1998? REMOVED THE CAPS LOCK! Yes, I'm a programmer, yes my #DEFINE are in caps, yes, I type my SQL in CAPS. No, I'm not going to cry about my first-world problem of NEEDING TO HOLD DOWN SHIFT! It's easy to train your pinky to hold it-- it becomes natural real quick.
Give me an easy way to permanently (and independent of the OS in use) disable the CAPS LOCK key. That is all I ask.
Messing with keyboard layouts is not something to be taken lightly. Just like you wouldn't reverse the break and gas pedals on a car, moving keys around on the keyboard should not be done trivially. That said, the caps lock key is in one of the most easily accessible locations on the keyboard, and its one of the keys we use the least. It should be moved, and replaced with one we use more often. Personally, I'd like to see a new modifier key here. One thing I have done in the past, is to re-map my caps lock key to alt, which can be done with a Windows registry setting. This makes using key combinations much easier, which is nice when you're playing WoW and need as many keyboard shortcuts as you can get.
set softtabstop=4 shiftwidth=4 expandtab nocp worlddomination
http://www.pckeyboard.com/
You will buy one, once. It will last you the rest of your life, or, until USB disappears, which ever comes first.
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
I always thought that the change in position of the Ctrl key is what killed off WordStar. It was painful to navigate within documents when you have to contort your hand to get your pinky on the repositioned Ctrl key.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
Why are you channeling my high school typing teacher?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I've been using the Truly Ergonomic ( https://www.trulyergonomic.com/ ) keyborad for well over a year now. It's totally different from a normal keyboard. I'm also using a blank-keycap one, in dvorak mode, with some personal key-changes.
I love it being different. I love the way that it's different -- columnar arrangement, tab, backspace, enter down the middle, home-row shifts, delete mirroring escape.
It took a whopping two weeks to get used to the new layout. Much like it took me two weeks to switch from qwerty to dvorak fifteen years ago. And I've no trouble bouncing back and forth to "normal" keyboards when necessary.
More important that how I feel, is how I feel. My fingers move a lot less, I type much more fluidly, I'm much more comfortable, and long days feel the same as short days.
I welcome new designs and layouts. You're not forced to use the ones that you don't like. Which is good, because otherwise I'd be forced to use a qwerty keyboard -- you know, the one designed to be horrible to use. The author might want to focus on that problem first.
That is interesting. I have had the opposite experience. When you say "in fact" did you mean that you read some study or got doctor's advice indicating that the strain was increased by switching to ergo? Or was that just your experience?
Rudeness isn't productive. Misunderstandings are common in an online format, where would all of us be if everyone reacted the way you did? Well, I will take a lesson and try to phrase better in the future. But in this case if I had, I would have missed out on the useful data that you're a dickhead.
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
Probably because I modified the original phrasing and failed to update the article preceding it.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
The article on Ars Technica missed the worst thing about the new ThinkPad keyboard: what happened with the Caps Lock function.
To enable Caps Lock, you press the Left Shift key twice.
That's right, one press less than what is required for invoking Sticky Keys under Windows - which everyone hates because it gets invoked when you don't want it. Expect a shitstorm from angry Thinkpad users who will buy laptops with this keyboard.
"We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley