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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

#421

Post by daniel-cussen »

potamic wrote: post #299
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…

This is becoming a trend on HN where top comment points calls out the criticism in a thread. I personally feel there is nothing negative about critique and one of the reasons people broadcast their work here is to receive more feedback on it. Not every showcase automatically deserves a compliment. I think we should respect people for their opinions and the danger of applying negative pressure to criticism is we creat…

As someone who lives in the negative hemisphere, right, not everything has to be positive. But hey, I think it was cool he did this, and he hit the HN jackpot in attention, I find merit in his effort to make something, anything.

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

#422

Post by soheil »

paledot wrote: post #338

I want to hear more about what you expect the rotary encoder to be used for. You clearly put a lot of thought into making it happen, so - why? I feel like there must be some interesting use cases, but I'm drawing a blank.

What about adjusting the volume? If you have ever been in a car you can instantly relate to a knob like that.

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

#423

Post by interleave »

This looks fantastic!

A thought-experiment that may interest you coming from someone (me) who already has happily spent several hundreds of dollars on mechanical keyboards and uses them every single day:

Let's imagine the keyboard could be bought today as-is with a simple "Buy Now" button and price was no concern.

The two main reasons I would _still_ hesitate to hit that button are:

1. I absolutely and undoubtedly need to know what it SOUNDS and FEELS like. Is it linear, tactile, clicky? How much? I turned my speakers to max because I assumed you'd have some audio-track running but to no avail. Did I miss something?

2. I wish there was a 'blank' version with zero typography anywhere. Just all black. I touch-type and have not looked at my keyboard in 15 years.

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

#424

Post by UncleEntity »

WalterBright wrote: post #61

It looks great! The letters and numbers on the keys appear to be painted on. My experience with such keys is the paint wears off, and by then you'd better know how to touch type! A feature I'd like to see is being able to clean the keyboard without ruining it. Best would be if I could run it through the dishwasher.

Yeah, I ruined a dishwasher by running engine parts through it once…ok, twice because I wanted to figure out why the floor was wet and it turns out regular hand soap isn’t designed for dishwasher use with all the foaming bubbles escape out the sides of the door.

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

#425

Post by throw10920 »

potamic wrote: post #299
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…

This is becoming a trend on HN where top comment points calls out the criticism in a thread. I personally feel there is nothing negative about critique and one of the reasons people broadcast their work here is to receive more feedback on it. Not every showcase automatically deserves a compliment. I think we should respect people for their opinions and the danger of applying negative pressure to criticism is we creat…

> This is becoming a trend on HN where top comment points calls out the criticism in a thread.

This is because some people have discovered that it's a great way to emotionally manipulate others into upvoting that comment out of guilt - the structure of this kind of comment is designed to bypass the logical reasoning centers of the brain and cause an emotional reaction. (I saw another comment a few weeks ago that had more detail on this, but I have no hope of finding it without my exobrain) It's also just barely far enough away from the "Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community." in the guidelines that some people can justify doing it.

I automatically downvote comments of this form whenever I see them. Comments should be written in such a way that encourages curious and thoughtful conversation and not emotional manipulation.

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

#430

Post by z9znz »

This looks SO nice.

The different key surface shapes are something that's missing from most keyboards. I created a very ugly but more usable Moonlander Mk1 by changing out several of the keycaps with other shaped caps from different sets. It makes a world of difference in being able to touch type, especially since my fingers are not super long (and I have to move my hand a little to reach some keys).

It's funny, the aesthetic of this ElectronicMaterials keyboard reminds me of Teenage Engineering. I always wished TE would get into keyboards...

People (myself included, and probably many on HN) will pay a lot for a premium keyboard. This is especially true for those of us who type enough that we start having hand/arm problems. It's a quality of life matter, and spending several hundred or more is reasonable if the benefits are there. (Not all expensive keyboards provide real benefits worthy of their price.)

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