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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

#551

Post by HellsMaddy »

harel wrote: post #286

It's a beautiful keyboard, no doubt, and I'm sure a lot of care and thought went into making it. For me, having no page up/down buttons (and you do have space for them), is a deal breaker. I can forgive the weird mac-like squiggle button on the top left although it's completely useless to me (and most people I assume), but not the lack of Page Up/Down. I actually use those.

If you scroll about 2/3 of the way down the page, you’ll see the comparison between the ISO and ANSI version. The ISO version has the § key, while the ANSI version has a ~ key.

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

#553

Post by turtlebits »

glxxyz wrote: post #314
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…

I've had a dual boiler espresso machine (La Spaziale S1) for 10 years that's a typography horror show. There are less than 10 words on the device and they managed to use 4 completely different fonts: their logo font (which I actually like), a squat serif thing for 'S1', an ugly script font, and worst of all for the 'BOILER' and 'ON/OFF' buttons: Comic Sans. It occasionally bothers me but most of the time I'm able to…

The egregious use of fonts (at least 4 different?) and the terrible mismatch of the historical Apple font and current product text on back of the keyboard is what brought me to the comments.

I even had to google images of your espresso machine to see what you were talking about. Wow....

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1616/2815/products/M-VIVAL...

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

#554

Post by entropie »

freedomben wrote: post #449
interleave wrote: post #423

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 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)

I bought (imported!) a happy hacking pro 2 like 8 years ago and I wanted it to be blank. There was no german layout (still not existing?) and wrong labels are a no go for me.

Its still my daily driver and I love it.

Just yesterday I cleaned it, removed every key etc. Its every time a total mess to put it together but I eventually made it.

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

#555

Post by Rebelgecko »

ticklemyelmo wrote: post #291
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…

A roller-style rotary encoder would work better. And perhaps be a better ergnonomic fit for what I assume is its primary use case, scrolling.

I use the one on my Das Keyboard as a volume knob, it's pretty handy

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

#557

Post by Cyberdog »

kerblang wrote: post #46

Web site advice: The spinning graphic is cool but it's very hard to get a decent look at the whole thing. I even tried clicking to pause it. It seems like all the pictures are partial or moving. As the keyboard goes: As others have noted, it would be really nice to see this design approach taken to a more full-sized standard keyboard. I think it's necessary to have some kind of tactile thing between function keys - a…

No post body was provided.

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

#558

Post by chrismarlow9 »

mmastrac wrote: post #548
chrismarlow9 wrote: post #529

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the same curiosity about offering a blank keyboard because I've been using one for 8 years or so after it was recommended by a former co-worker who I have huge respect for. So I'll give it a shot to explain the difference after I got adjusted to it: I did not realize that my brain was still wired to look at the keyboard periodically, specifically when dealing with special characters and really anything outside…

This makes me wonder if I would have had an easier time learning piano with more explicit notes on the keys...

I actually pulled that example from watching my sibling learn the piano in the 90's using that exact method. The teacher used stickers on the keys to speed up the initial muscle memory building (it also kept younger kids from getting discouraged so easily due to difficulty). After a few simple tunes and when they knew where "G" was without the stickers and without counting from middle "C", the stickers came off and the ear training began to play what they hear.
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