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I often wonder why the typical keyboard keys are staggered such that symmetry is not mirrored for each hand. The top row is shifted slightly to the left of the

I often wonder why the typical keyboard keys are staggered such that symmetry is not mirrored for each hand. The top row is shifted slightly to the left of the home row, which means your left hand fingers reaching outward travel a different distance than your right hand fingers reaching outward. Combined with letter placement, the left hand usually has a lot more to do than the right. The bottom row is much more symmetrically positioned, and yet has the fewest letter keys.

wbolster 10y ago
the historical reason for staggering are the metal arms on mechanical typewriters, which obviously does not make any sense nowadays, but unfortunately the design stuck, as did the qwerty layout. non-staggered keyboards, such as the kinesis advantage, better match the shape of the hand, sometimes even with vertical "staggering" instead of horizontal. additionally, the thumbs are the strongest fingers but are only supposed to hit the (huge) space bar. this is the problem that alternative physical layouts like the ergodox and the kinesis advantage try to address. also, split keyboards allow you to use wrist and arm angles that match your body instead of the keyboard. different letter layouts like colemak (good, especially modern computers) and dvorak (also good, but designed in the pre-computer era) significantly reduce finger travel and improve on finger and hand alteration. for me personally, colemak works great to prevent strain.
- gnicholasgreen 10y ago
  'ortholinear' might be the term you are looking for. On a personal note, I've found no issues bouncing back and forth between and Ergodox and regular, non-split, staggered keyboards.
midgetjones 10y ago
Ortholinear keyboards are a thing[0], but they still take a bit of getting used to if you've spent any time on a regular keyboard. [0] http://olkb.com/ http://olkb.com/

wbolster 10y ago

the historical reason for staggering are the metal arms on mechanical typewriters, which obviously does not make any sense nowadays, but unfortunately the design stuck, as did the qwerty layout. non-staggered keyboards, such as the kinesis advantage, better match the shape of the hand, sometimes even with vertical "staggering" instead of horizontal. additionally, the thumbs are the strongest fingers but are only supposed to hit the (huge) space bar. this is the problem that alternative physical layouts like the ergodox and the kinesis advantage try to address. also, split keyboards allow you to use wrist and arm angles that match your body instead of the keyboard. different letter layouts like colemak (good, especially modern computers) and dvorak (also good, but designed in the pre-computer era) significantly reduce finger travel and improve on finger and hand alteration. for me personally, colemak works great to prevent strain.

gnicholasgreen 10y ago
'ortholinear' might be the term you are looking for. On a personal note, I've found no issues bouncing back and forth between and Ergodox and regular, non-split, staggered keyboards.

midgetjones 10y ago

Ortholinear keyboards are a thing[0], but they still take a bit of getting used to if you've spent any time on a regular keyboard. [0] http://olkb.com/ http://olkb.com/