Those giant numbers in a different font from the numbers on the f-keys sure are a choice you made.
I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard
441–450 of 688 posts
Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard
#442This 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 ne…
The site describes the switches as similar to reds. Linear, no tactile bump, silent.
Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard
#443I 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.
I hope that encoder's knob is easily removable because it's a large protrusion that will get in the way of slipping the keyboard into narrow spaces. Large coat pockets, outer pockets on backpacks, drawers, bookshelves, ...
It looks like the kind of thing that might get damaged. Imagine it getting stuck when opening a drawer, which someone unwittingly tries to overcome with force.
Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard
#444There'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…
Thanks, I'm so happy you — and lots of others — like what I've been working on. It means a lot, it's very fulfilling. I don't find the criticism demoralising. Quite the opposite, it means people are engaged, which I love. I tried to create a product with a strong design and as a result it's quite divisive. That's okay. Good, even. I put this thing up on the internet and asked for peoples opinions... and that's what I…
I love it, from what I see. I will definitely be an early buyer (US version...).
I wish we could all have a real conversation about key layouts, though. The layout with the less reachable left shift and right enter/return is just dumb. It's like putting the door lock control on the outside of your car door so you have to roll the window down to reach out and unlock the door. In place of where the door lock belongs, they put the hood release lever. Obviously that would be a really stupid design since we need to unlock the door much more than we need to open the hood. And that's how I feel about the tradeoffs between the US and US International layouts.
The tilda and backtick key is much less used than the shift key, so robbing reachable space from shift to put that less needed key is absurd. So is pushing squeezing the return key out of reach of the right pinky. Someone who was not a touch typist designed this, and they should be made to pay for the guaranteed loss in productivity that comes from using it.
Sorry for the rant. But really, I wish this could be resolved. It sucks that I cannot walk into an Apple store in Europe and get one with "good" US keyboard. (You can still order US layout in Europe.)
Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard
#445A lot of mechanical keyboards look incredible but once they arrive in the mail they're complete garbage when it comes to tactile feedback and general feel and usability of the keys. I'd say that's 80% of what makes a good keyboard. Crossing my fingers on this one (well at least until the keyboard arrives and need them to type on it).
Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard
#446Aw, the orange part is just a rotary encoder. And here I thought they had finally given a computer an ignition switch. :)
Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard
#447I'm curious how you chose both the font style and font size. I would've preferred something else for both is my first impression. Did you sample preferences from people? Very impressive project.
Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard
#448Earlier quoted context omitted.
^ agree, I mean did the OP expect to make a polarizing product like the keyboard without some criticism? also, this thread is a gold mine of insight they can use to refine their product for the market. ie take off the stupid orange knob and hide the made in the uk nonsense and stop naming the product like a mars bound space rocket
“The Market” isn’t “readers of Hacker News.” It’s part of the market, but it would be foolish to let critiques here drive decisions. If we listened to Hacker News Dropbox potentially wouldn’t have been a thing.
I'm guessing it will be an expensive keyboard. As such, HN is probably the best market because we will be the early adopters, and our colleagues will see our awesome new thing and perhaps also want one.
Dropbox is a very useful thing for most people, and it's not expensive. That's a very different scenario than this keyboard+HN.
Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard
#449This 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 ne…
> 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.
If you don't look at it, why do you care if it has typography? (that's an honest question, not a rhetorical point dressed up as a question)
Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard
#450There'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…
>Not every showcase automatically deserves a compliment.
You're right. I do find, however, that the "default" reaction to showcases is to point out all the flaws, but not reinforce any of the strengths. To me that seems unbalanced.
I'm sure many HN users are content with this form of feedback - that's fine. I personally think that when receiving feedback, finding out what has been done well is as important as finding out what hasn't.