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I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

electronicmaterialsoffice.com

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Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#241

Post by MetaWhirledPeas »

seanbarry wrote: post #229

There's a lot of criticism in the comments here, some of it feels very negative. I can imagine reading it as the OP is quite demoralising. Personally I think what the OP has achieved is very impressive. The design looks beautiful, and there's a very "Apple-esque" feel to the website. I love that sustainability has been made a requirement as part of the design. I think some of the other comments give good feedback abo…

Yeah it's pretty amazing looking really. I have different personal preferences but I'm not blind to the aesthetics of this thing. It also seems like it would have a nice solid feel, and I like that knob design a lot.

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#242

Post by Hendrikto »

I love the idea and design, but I hate the placement of the Control and Function keys.

I guess it is nice for the people used to the Mac keyboard layout, but it is really not for me.

Did you consider an option for a more ”traditional“ layout?

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#243

Post by layer8 »

MattRix wrote: post #158
smeej wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The font thing is bigger than people might think. As soon as I saw the number row, I had such an immediate and harsh reaction to it that it surprised me. I almost couldn't believe that was the cause, but when I waited for the device to turn around again, that was definitely it. I don't even have to look at my fingers often, but I wouldn't be able to stand walking by those numbers on a regular basis. I don't think I'v…

Agreed. The rest of the keyboard looks great, the numbers look too large and childish.

I guess it’s intended to be “iconic”, but, well, being iconic often also means increasing the ratio of people who actively dislike it.

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#244

Post by Tijdreiziger »

layer8 wrote: post #215
Lukineus wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... without Home/End/PgUp/PgDn/Insert keys ... My laptop has Home/End/PgUp/PgDn as the Fn function on the Arrow keys, and its actually really good. So good I've actually setup other machines with the same shortcuts wherever I can.

Yeah, I use Home/End/PgUo/PgDn constantly, so much that having to use any modifier for it is just not acceptable to me. A secondary factor is that there are often keyboard shortcuts that combine Home/End/PgUp/PgDn with (combinations of) Shift/Ctrl/Alt, so having to add another modifier to those just makes it really inconvenient. There is a sweet spot of the number of keys available for use without modifier keys, and…

Having Home/End/PgUp/PgDn bound to the Fn key is much more convenient for me, though.

After all, you already do all other cursor manipulation with a combination of the arrow keys and Ctrl/Alt/Shift. From a muscle memory perspective, having the 'beginning/end of line' and 'previous/next page' actions as just another modifier is much more natural than having to use an entirely separate set of keys for this.

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#246

Post by chrismorgan »

badRNG wrote: post #93
layer8 wrote: post #35

Everyone is different, but personally I won’t buy a keyboard without separate Delete and Backspace keys, without Home/End/PgUp/PgDn/Insert keys, and without a dedicated Menu key [0], for any kind of serious work. I’d also imagine that one is prone to bump into the rotary knob if one is not fully conditioned to that keyboard. I applaud the T-shaped cursor block and the full-sized function keys, although it would be us…

> and without a dedicated Menu key [0], for any kind of serious work. I'll bite; how useful is the Menu key really? Is there something in your workflow that is benefitted by having it? Totally agree with Home/End/Insert/Delete being required on any keyboard I use.

It puts an extra key in that area, giving me one more candidate to use as Compose. (Of four laptop designs, I think I’ve used RMenu as Compose on two of them, and RAlt on the other two, which I think have RMenu as Fn+RAlt or Fn+RCtrl, one each. It depends on the positioning of Space to a considerable extent.)

While on the topic of what keys are on the keyboard and while thinking of Fn keys, I really, really, really wish that keyboards would give a key code for Fn+___ for each and every non-modifier key. It’s absurd that such a simple opportunity for good macro-capability is discarded, and you can only use Fn with the few keys (on laptops, commonly around 16–20) the manufacturer deigned to hook up (e.g. Fn+F1 as XF86AudioMute, Fn+F7 as XF86BrightnessUp, Fn+Space as PrintScreen, Fn+Left as Home, that kind of thing) and the rest are just swallowed in the keyboard firmware. How is it that as far as I can tell no one has done such an obvious and obviously useful thing?

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#247

Post by MetaWhirledPeas »

seltzered_ wrote: post #94

I run a subreddit on mobile ergonomics ( http://reddit.com/r/ergomobilecomputers/ ) and spent the past year using raised tablet PC as my only machine, and curating the smaller subset of portable keyboard & computer setups. My advice: - drop the rotary encoder, it messes up the height for packing the keyboard away. - a 75% layout (i.e. having fn keys) is okay, but makes it a bit challenging to fit in with a 13" tablet…

> drop the rotary encoder, it messes up the height for packing the keyboard away

If that's really a concern the correct approach would be to make the knob low-profile.

> What ergonomic job does this design serve?

This does not claim to be an "ergonomic" keyboard.

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#248

Post by Hendrikto »

what-imright wrote: post #234

Really nice especially the moulded keys, but two eyesores, the logo and the whatever knob in the top right. You’re never going to be able to slip that into a bag with the knob sticking out. And nobody uses those. Well nobody that can pay $120 for a keyboard. As for the logo, that’s a vanity thing. I know you’re very proud of making the product but if you put a stupid logo on front it kills the minimalist vibe and red…

Counterpoint: I like the knob snd it‘s design, and I would definitely have multiple use cases for it.

I agree that it makes the keyboard less portable though.

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#249

Post by lighttower »

layer8 wrote: post #35

Everyone is different, but personally I won’t buy a keyboard without separate Delete and Backspace keys, without Home/End/PgUp/PgDn/Insert keys, and without a dedicated Menu key [0], for any kind of serious work. I’d also imagine that one is prone to bump into the rotary knob if one is not fully conditioned to that keyboard. I applaud the T-shaped cursor block and the full-sized function keys, although it would be us…

The dedicated keyboard menu key stopped working in Gmail about 6 months ago. Has anyone figured out how to get it to work again?
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