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I did some patent research on alternative keyboards about 30 years ago. Frankly, even then, there was an unusual density of innovation in this technology. To be

I did some patent research on alternative keyboards about 30 years ago. Frankly, even then, there was an unusual density of innovation in this technology. To be clear, there was about 5X more variants on the keyboard than I would have expected prior to my deep research. As a former patent attorney, working in various industries, a good rule of thumb is that only 1 in 3 inventions ever get implemented commercially. Back in the 1990's, in the keyboard field, it was about 1 in 10. The chief problem with keyboard innovations, even ones that are demonstrably more efficient, is that its a little like asking people to reverse driving on the right-hand-side (here in N. America), and go to left-side-of-the-road driving. You have to break a lot of ingrained 'finger memory' -- and, to some extent, be sure that your peers are doing the same. I think, then, for that reason, such keyboards never amounted, as a whole, to be more than 1-2% of the entire market. Literally, 100 different keyboards (than QWERTTY) are outsold, by a factor of 100X by QWERTY

thomastjeffery 5y ago
The compounding factor of that problem is that in order to get a more novel design, you have to spend anywhere from $60 to $500 or more, and potentially do your own assembly and soldering. That means the only people who are getting novel designs to use are those who can both afford one in the first place, and are motivated enough to spend roughly 10-200 times the usual keyboard cost. This is especially prohibitive for children, who are the group most likely to accommodate the learning curve of a novel design.
touggourt 5y ago
> You have to break a lot of ingrained 'finger memory' That seems obvious but it's not true: Your brain can easily learn different habits. For example, look at musicians playing and switching on various similar music instruments (between keyboards, different guitars like banjos or bass, kalimba (Thumb-Pianos) with 8 or 12 keys and different tuning, etc.). Don't forget also that you can learn something fast when it gives you a quick benefit. For example, learning the french alternative keyboard layout "Bépo", takes only 2 or 3 weeks, because after one or two hours of exercises you are already typing frequent words easier and faster. I learned at the same time, the ergonomic Typematrix keyboard, and frankly the ergonomic part of the layout was easy to learn. Of course I didn't forget the other layouts, and I can type on classical Azerty or Qwerty keyboards without much thinking. Human brain plasticity is very high.
- robbedpeter 5y ago
  It's also counterintuitive in that learning a new skill will not override your learned muscle memory. Your brain is awesome at incorporating context, so you won't lose any proficiency with regular keyboards. You might actually get better, if there are any mutually beneficial motions that are reinforced.
- Eji1700 5y ago
  It's always been crazy to me how adamant people are that they can't learn things like this. I know not everyone is the same, and yes it will be harder for some than others, but I have 3 different keyboards in use with slightly different layouts, and it did not take me that long at all to start using them, or to get back up to full typing speed (for the record I code so having symbols easier to access is so so nice). Further I rarely have issues switching back to a normal layout (my only problem is i remap capslock to control on everything and will sometimes hit that instead). The two things i've seen that prevent people is, first, an expectation of instant success, which just isn't realistic. It'll take a few days, but once you've done it once it's quite trivial to swap back and forth as needed. Second, there's a shocking amount of people who just cannot touch type? Even in IT/Dev environments I've seen hunt and peck or other strange forms. Not blaming them but I really think it's a major failure on our society that with tech so integral we don't do a better job teaching these skills.
anotherevan 5y ago
> You have to break a lot of ingrained 'finger memory' I'm a full ten finger touch typist, having learnt it in high school. In November last year I accidentally nicked the tip of my left index finger with a power saw - which then required a lot of swearing and a minor surgery to repair the nail bed. All to say while the finger was out of commission due to being heavily bandaged or too painful to type with, I quickly became adept as a nine finger touch typist. Wasn't as fast but had to pay less attention to my typing than I thought I would have to. (Finger is mostly pretty good now, if a little lop-sided. Still some numbness in the very end but overall I was very lucky.)

thomastjeffery 5y ago

The compounding factor of that problem is that in order to get a more novel design, you have to spend anywhere from $60 to $500 or more, and potentially do your own assembly and soldering. That means the only people who are getting novel designs to use are those who can both afford one in the first place, and are motivated enough to spend roughly 10-200 times the usual keyboard cost. This is especially prohibitive for children, who are the group most likely to accommodate the learning curve of a novel design.

touggourt 5y ago

> You have to break a lot of ingrained 'finger memory' That seems obvious but it's not true: Your brain can easily learn different habits. For example, look at musicians playing and switching on various similar music instruments (between keyboards, different guitars like banjos or bass, kalimba (Thumb-Pianos) with 8 or 12 keys and different tuning, etc.). Don't forget also that you can learn something fast when it gives you a quick benefit. For example, learning the french alternative keyboard layout "Bépo", takes only 2 or 3 weeks, because after one or two hours of exercises you are already typing frequent words easier and faster. I learned at the same time, the ergonomic Typematrix keyboard, and frankly the ergonomic part of the layout was easy to learn. Of course I didn't forget the other layouts, and I can type on classical Azerty or Qwerty keyboards without much thinking. Human brain plasticity is very high.

robbedpeter 5y ago
It's also counterintuitive in that learning a new skill will not override your learned muscle memory. Your brain is awesome at incorporating context, so you won't lose any proficiency with regular keyboards. You might actually get better, if there are any mutually beneficial motions that are reinforced.
Eji1700 5y ago
It's always been crazy to me how adamant people are that they can't learn things like this. I know not everyone is the same, and yes it will be harder for some than others, but I have 3 different keyboards in use with slightly different layouts, and it did not take me that long at all to start using them, or to get back up to full typing speed (for the record I code so having symbols easier to access is so so nice). Further I rarely have issues switching back to a normal layout (my only problem is i remap capslock to control on everything and will sometimes hit that instead). The two things i've seen that prevent people is, first, an expectation of instant success, which just isn't realistic. It'll take a few days, but once you've done it once it's quite trivial to swap back and forth as needed. Second, there's a shocking amount of people who just cannot touch type? Even in IT/Dev environments I've seen hunt and peck or other strange forms. Not blaming them but I really think it's a major failure on our society that with tech so integral we don't do a better job teaching these skills.

anotherevan 5y ago

> You have to break a lot of ingrained 'finger memory' I'm a full ten finger touch typist, having learnt it in high school. In November last year I accidentally nicked the tip of my left index finger with a power saw - which then required a lot of swearing and a minor surgery to repair the nail bed. All to say while the finger was out of commission due to being heavily bandaged or too painful to type with, I quickly became adept as a nine finger touch typist. Wasn't as fast but had to pay less attention to my typing than I thought I would have to. (Finger is mostly pretty good now, if a little lop-sided. Still some numbness in the very end but overall I was very lucky.)