Looking at this Keybee layout it seems not very usable. The biggest change when typing on touchscreen is using your two thumbs instead of ten fingers, and IMO for the flow is more important that letters alternate the left (L) and right (R) thumb, instead of minimizing distance. This way one finger can move while the other is pressing. I'll take their "Hello there is a starman waiting in the sky" as an example. On a qwerty layout the letters you type with L and R are evenly distributed and the longest run with the same thumb is 3: "There" is LRLLL. On Keybee however, the same sentence is typed almost entirely with the right thumb (dominant hand, so I would probably use it to type the middle letters W, H, A and space). Now the longest run is 16! I guess this would be a bit more balanced is I figured out which of the middle keys to take with my left thumb, but it doesnt seem worth it especially with the enormous keyboard. As part of the younger generation I can type blind and relatively fast and error free on touchscreen. If you really need to type a long email just switch to a regular keyboard, having ten fingers typing is much faster than any layout using only your thumbs will achieve.
Keybee: a new keyboard layout designed specifically for touchscreen devices
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Re: Keybee: a new keyboard layout designed specifically for touchscreen devices
#12I don't see the point... QWERTY is great for touch screens, for the same reason it was great for typewriters: common letter combinations are spaced out. Typing with two thumbs on a small screen is comfortable due to greater space between keys and high rate of alternating hands.
I understand your point but it is not only about speed..but ergonomoics, key size and most importantly you can type just with one thumb and let the second hand free..!!
Re: Keybee: a new keyboard layout designed specifically for touchscreen devices
#13Does that website really just have a single sentence of explanation? I was looking for the theory of what it is trying to solve and why they choose that particular layout. And ideally, some reasonably done studies to demonstrate that it is an improvement.
You can check the patent.
Re: Keybee: a new keyboard layout designed specifically for touchscreen devices
#14Does that website really just have a single sentence of explanation? I was looking for the theory of what it is trying to solve and why they choose that particular layout. And ideally, some reasonably done studies to demonstrate that it is an improvement.
Re: Keybee: a new keyboard layout designed specifically for touchscreen devices
#15Looking at this Keybee layout it seems not very usable. The biggest change when typing on touchscreen is using your two thumbs instead of ten fingers, and IMO for the flow is more important that letters alternate the left (L) and right (R) thumb, instead of minimizing distance. This way one finger can move while the other is pressing. I'll take their "Hello there is a starman waiting in the sky" as an example. On a q…
That's because Keybee is designed for one thumb typing. So it is correct to use mostly the right thumb. Happy new year..!!!
Re: Keybee: a new keyboard layout designed specifically for touchscreen devices
#16Writing anything on modern touchscreen smartphones is so frustrating. I think the problem is that the touchscreen is always going to be an inferior interface to a physical button. I remember what it was like using PDAs and smartphones with actual physical keys. After a brief period of adjustment to a new device, I was soon typing without any mistakes. It was such a low-friction transfer of my thoughts to digital form…
I still use my Blackberry 9900 as my main phone and for work emails. They keyboard is fantastic and given the comparatively small size of the phone nothing comes close. I'm aware I'm on the losing team though as so many family & friends use WhatsApp now and I can't have that.
They newer Android Blackberries are OK but their keyboard isn't as good as the 9900.
Re: Keybee: a new keyboard layout designed specifically for touchscreen devices
#17Looking at this Keybee layout it seems not very usable. The biggest change when typing on touchscreen is using your two thumbs instead of ten fingers, and IMO for the flow is more important that letters alternate the left (L) and right (R) thumb, instead of minimizing distance. This way one finger can move while the other is pressing. I'll take their "Hello there is a starman waiting in the sky" as an example. On a q…
That's because Keybee is designed for one thumb typing. So it is correct to use mostly the right thumb. Happy new year..!!!
Do you have a flipped version for left-handed typing then?
Re: Keybee: a new keyboard layout designed specifically for touchscreen devices
#18Looking at this Keybee layout it seems not very usable. The biggest change when typing on touchscreen is using your two thumbs instead of ten fingers, and IMO for the flow is more important that letters alternate the left (L) and right (R) thumb, instead of minimizing distance. This way one finger can move while the other is pressing. I'll take their "Hello there is a starman waiting in the sky" as an example. On a q…
That's because Keybee is designed for one thumb typing. So it is correct to use mostly the right thumb. Happy new year..!!!
Having the keyboard centered on the ipad seems to suggest otherwise.
Typed on Keybee.
Re: Keybee: a new keyboard layout designed specifically for touchscreen devices
#19I just enabled it. I'm still a bit slow but so far it seems there's less fat fingering. I'm in the smaller phones camp so I guess fat fingering is a larger issue for me than it is for most who prefer the big flagship phones.
Re: Keybee: a new keyboard layout designed specifically for touchscreen devices
#20> Yes, all the greatest tech innovations are free. So Keybee is free and it will be always free because the keyboard is the basic human
> Keybee was invented, developed and patented by Marco Papalia
That is dishonest, it isn't free if it is encumbered by patents. Also i'm not sure how this works considering the author is from Italy and EU doesn't consider software patentable.