Where should the “6” key be?

#1

Post by ingve » Sat, Aug 22, 2015, 12:17 PM UTC

Where should the “6” key be?
ultimatehackingkeyboard.com

Re: Where should the “6” key be?

#2

Post by Sir_Cmpwn » Sat, Aug 22, 2015, 2:08 PM UTC

What's most interesting here to me is that people are taught which fingers to type with. I was never explicitly taught how to type, but I usually hit 6 with my left middle finger. I type at 130 WPM on average.

Edit: after some screwing around, I hit every number but 1 with my middle fingers (I hit 1 with my left ring finger).

Re: Where should the “6” key be?

#3

Post by taneq » Sat, Aug 22, 2015, 2:10 PM UTC

To the right of the '5' key, above the '3' key and below the '9' key.

Re: Where should the “6” key be?

#4

Post by jwr » Sat, Aug 22, 2015, 2:14 PM UTC

A side comment, as it's the first time I see the "ultimate hacking keyboard":

Whenever I see a keyboard with an "Fn" key, I sigh. This means that the designer of the keyboard thought he knows better which functions I need and took valuable space in the modifier row for a key which I will probably never use. Media control functions? Come on.

Most keyboards that have an "Fn" key do not allow you to remap it in any way and invent new, impressively useless functions for it, often involving holding it for a second or longer to get to some functionality (the mind boggles).

I couldn't understand from the description if the "Fn" key is fully configurable — I sincerely hope it is, because otherwise I will never want to use this keyboard.

Otherwise this seems like a really nice design.

Re: Where should the “6” key be?

#5

Post by cauterize » Sat, Aug 22, 2015, 2:16 PM UTC

Does anyone else have links to other interesting approaches to keyboards (products or otherwise)?

Re: Where should the “6” key be?

#6

Post by zdw » Sat, Aug 22, 2015, 2:20 PM UTC

As someone who hits the "b" key with their right hand when typing, I find it encouraging that they're splitting that off to the right side, as the vast majority of "ergonomic" keyboards put it on the left side, as the home row method of typing instruction recommends.

(I learned my non-standard method of touch typing playing MUD's via telnet in the mid-nineties)

Re: Where should the “6” key be?

#7

Post by userbinator » Sat, Aug 22, 2015, 2:25 PM UTC

I almost never touch the 6 on the top row but use the numpad instead, although it seems I use either left or right index finger depending on which hand I pressed the last key with. If I'm typing the shifted version (i.e. the ^ operator), I always use my right index since my left hand moves down to the shift key.

Perhaps for the same reason, I don't use anything other than the standard PC layout; I'm basically memorised where all the keys are, and changing them will greatly confuse me. Split keyboards don't work for me either.

IMHO if you have to consciously think about which finger is being used, you should practice typing more. I didn't really know which finger I used and actually had to slow myself down to figure it out.

Edit: after a bit of experimenting, my fingering pattern seems to be approximately like this: http://i.imgur.com/zpcmHZ9.png

Re: Where should the “6” key be?

#8

Post by andrepd » Sat, Aug 22, 2015, 2:28 PM UTC

jwr wrote: post #4

A side comment, as it's the first time I see the "ultimate hacking keyboard": Whenever I see a keyboard with an "Fn" key, I sigh. This means that the designer of the keyboard thought he knows better which functions I need and took valuable space in the modifier row for a key which I will probably never use. Media control functions? Come on. Most keyboards that have an "Fn" key do not allow you to remap it in any way…

From the main page: "It's important to note that the above are only the layers of the factory keymap. You can redefine them in any way and create multiple, custom, application-specific keymaps."

Re: Where should the “6” key be?

#9

Post by tsomctl » Sat, Aug 22, 2015, 2:30 PM UTC

Why not have two "6" keys, one on each half? The user can use whichever one he likes.

Re: Where should the “6” key be?

#10

Post by Intermernet » Sat, Aug 22, 2015, 2:32 PM UTC

Thanks for putting a lot of thought into this! I've used many KBs over the years, and haven't thought about the alignment of the number row at all.

As an example, I just noticed that my Surface "Typepad" KB has a very narrow tilde / back-quote key (~ and `) which biases the "6" to the left. If this weren't the case than it would be more centered, but this is then thrown by the width of the "Backspace" key.

Is numerical input (without the use of a number pad) covered at all in any of the QWERTY vs. Dvorak vs. etc. debates? They have mostly looked at character input to my knowledge, with little regard to numerical input.

Thanks UHK for asking this question?

(personally, I think I'd just adopt to whatever, but "power users" may have a different, justifiable position on this.)

EDIT: As an aside, what width space-bar do most of you think you require? I've just been thinking about KB key-width, and the space-bar shaped elephant-in-the-room loomed it's lengthy head.

Based on the visible wear patterns on my 7 year old laptop, I reckon I'd be more than happy if the space-bar only extended from "V" to "N".

I assume the KB designers have already looked into this, and we've already reached "optimum space-bar", but I'd love to see some research. Anyone know of any studies that have been done that confirm why my space-bar needs to be more than five times larger than the standard letter key?