Yeah right, obsessed with shaving some µm from keyboards but then let's put laptop style "short travel keys" keyboards on a desk because it looks cool. And not get me started with using the same horizontal staggered layout that was necessary 200 years ago on typewriters but it makes absolutely no sense today.
The fun thing is I've seen "ortholinear" keyboards sold for kids because horizontal staggered layout is for adults...
P.S. in my personal experience vertical staggered should be the default layout
“Ortholinear” is a made up word for “put all the keys in a fixed grid because hey it’s easy” (“orthos” was the Greek word for “straight”, “linea” was Latin for “line”).
“Vertical stagger” means that the keys are arranged in columns instead of rows, but the columns are staggered to match the resting position of the various fingers.
Unfortunately, being a big company, they can’t do anything very radical or work from first principles. Just like every other big company today, all of their keyboard designs end up being mediocre spinoffs of a basic keyboard designed in the 1870s which had evolutionaruy changes (not all ergonomically positive) in the 1920s–30s, and then again in the 60s, then again in the 90s.
The IBM keyboards produced from 1960–1990 are better than anything Microsoft puts out today: faster to type on, more ergonomic, much more reliable, sturdier, ... and of course much more expensive to produce. For particularly nice examples, take a look at these, https://deskthority.net/wiki/IBM_Beam_Spring_Keyboards
Or pick your favorite other vendor. Pretty much all of keyboards sold in the 70s–80s were better than anything available at mass scale today. Back then computers were competing head to head with typewriters, and the best electronic typewriters were really nice to type on. I’m partial to the Canon typewriters of the early 1980s with nice Alps switches, but e.g. some Olympia typewriters of the early 80s were deliciously clicky.
For at least the 2 decades from 1980–2000, pretty much every change in mass-market keyboards was driven by cost cutting. It’s not too surprising that quality degraded.
Even if we assume we can’t change the basic keyboard shape, one of the important features that Microsoft (and most other) keyboards have dropped since the 90s is that further-away rows on keyboards used to be elevated above the home row in a sort of step-like pattern. This makes it much easier to reach the tops of those keys, and therefore speeds up typing them. The original designs from the typewriters of the 60s and 70s were based on research done by Honeywell and IBM and imitated widely, but later keytop profiles (including for modern Microsoft keyboards) were designed by people who didn’t understand the reason for the design, and just imitated a progressively watered down form. (Indeed an even more aggressive step than the ones used on those old keyboards is ergonomically preferable for most typists.)
* * *
All of Microsoft’s fancy lab studies seem to me like A-B testing all of the possible choices of features for a penny-farthing bicycle without ever considering adding a chain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny-farthing
If what we care about is ergonomics (which is to say, reducing static strain on muscles in the hand/arm while using the strong and efficient part of the main finger flexors’ range of motion to type, and reducing the finger and arm motion required to reach the keys), then the Maltron from the 1970s is much better than any of the dome-shaped Microsoft keyboards https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maltron
Better still, my favorite concept is a never-mass-produced ergonomic keyboard design called the DataStealth from the 1990s, http://web.archive.org/web/20000601172323/http://www.protomi... which is in my opinion the most anatomically informed design ever seriously undertaken, developed by an expert from first principles.
> Unfortunately, being a big company, they can’t do anything very radical.
In my opinion, being big they have the means and resources to do some wacky and unorthodox experiment. I suppose that's same division that produced a Xbox controller for people with disabilities, it's quite a radical departure from the standard controller that one is used to find on a modern consoles: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/09/xbox-adaptive-control...
But, from what I know, they never tried something like this for keyboards.
What did break in it? I'm using sculpt since it was released and the mouse is still alive.
But I can't say that about the USB receiver, it broke after 6 months (it stopped receiving anything frombmouse/keyboard and the plastic cover just broke).
The replacement keyboard has almost the same issue with the receiver (loses contact depending ontthe way it is inserted), so I put it in an USB hub so I won't need to touch it and break the contacts.
Besides that I love it, and I love that the useless numpad is not the part of keyboard (BTW.I why every 15 inch laptop keyboard is has those is beyond me), I store it in a drawer.
Rubber dome keys do not provide for a good typing experience. I recommend switching over to a mechanical keyboard, there are so many different key types to choose from, depending on what you're looking for (tactile, clicky, or linear of varying heaviness).
If you want an ergonomic mechanical keyboard, the Advantage Kinesis[1] for example, comes in both tactile and linear key offerings. Also, checkout ErgoDox or keyboard.io (I haven't tried the latter).
Dang, I was reading this article, scrolled close to the bottom, and the site suddenly "reloaded" with completely different articles, removing the entire Microsoft keyboard article from the page. Why would they implement such a user-hostile design, making it impossible to access the content I came to the site for?
And the massive whole page cookie permission redirect that forces a response without being able to see the article... I try to avoid techcrunch for this reason. Sometimes if I'm on mobile I just use reading mode which ignores whatever JavaScript is being used to do it.
> It makes every staggered keyboard feel like a relic from another age, they make no sense to me at all.
I agree with you totally, it boggles my mind and I'm so frustrated that we are still replicating a layout necessary for mechanical levering when it's not required by at least a century...
The Natural has always been a watered-down, cheap feeling keyboard by comparison to thm, with - it would seem - much more attention being paid to not looking too weird than to actually being ergonomic, such as not straightening out the key columns, going convex, putting control keys where the thumbs can reach them, etc. It's pathetic. The only truly positive attribute specific to the Natural when compared to other ergonomics keyboards is that it was cheap, < $100. Although it also felt cheap, wore out relatively quickly making it more expensive per year of potential use, and had a terrible key mechanism that may have negated a good part of any ergonomic benefit - especially after some wear.
I'm biased, of course, I've typed on the "Naturals" and have several Kinesis Ergos. The latter keyboard style is the only thing that's made typing comfortable, and in the office I work in, I'm no alone in preferring them.
Not the OP but I have one that's collecting dust. I've chosen single profile keycaps for it (the keycaps have the same "shape" for every rows) because I wanted to use the Colemak layout, but I was never able to get used to it.
To be honest didn't tried too much. I also have an old Kinesis Advantage model, the one with the rubber function keys (I hate them, the Advantage2 has new function keys but they still look cheap membrane buttons) anyway I'm quite satisfied with a TECK 209, it's not perfect but it's more portable than the Advantage if I'm on the go.
When upgrading from a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 I was debating between the Kinesis Advantage 2 and the Ergodox EZ. The Ergo 4000 was my first ergonomic keyboard (and amazing for the cost) but I grew frustrated by the layout and rubber domes.
One of the blokes at work had an Ergodox and he was kind enough to give me a go. It was great fun - from memory the thumb clusters were closer than the Kinesis which would be great if you have smaller hands (for those who haven't tried the Kinesis Advantage - the thumb clusters are a little far away, using the 2 smallest keys closest to the bottom-centre isn't comfortable for me)
I thought the standout feature was mouse control at the hardware level - think hjkl but moving the mouse instead of your cursor. I have yet to find a way to do that with the Kinesis in software - if somebody can do this please let me know!
The reason I chose the Kinesis is the key wells felt great. It felt more natural for the keys to be the same distance from my fingers as they moved forwards and back in an arc.
The Ergodox was a lot more portable, though I thought I would be frustrated having to set up each half at the perfect distance and tenting each time. You also have a greater switch selection than the Kinesis Advantage if you want something clicky.
There used to be notebooks with slightly curved keyboards, can’t recall the vendor (HP? Dell?). I really wish Microsoft (and Apple) would re-set this trend.
Most modern keyboards are the result of small iterative changes to the keyboard of the first commercially successful typewriter, released in 1874. Note the QWERTY layout and staggered rows:
Micron-optimized keyboard sounds like horrible reliability. Speck of dust and laptop is ruined (Surface laptops can not be repaired in non-destructive way).
I had 4x Natural 4000 keyboards, they had constant problems due to bad design. Space bar got stuck. Keyboard wiring was prone to corrosion and shortcuts, keys would randomly stop working. Had to disassemble keyboard, wash inside with mild acid and leave it to dry.
At end I did this repair once a month and had multiple keyboards on rotation. I put up with that, there was no alternative at that time.
>> I may as well say at the outset that this piece was done essentially at the invitation (but not direction) of Microsoft...
Bad habits die hard.
Reminds me of the good old days we were fighting Microsoft in Israel, where the local marketing team would prep journalists (one especially made a career out of it) in its offices, who would later publish articles explaining why Linux is so bad for you and why it has no future. The good old “get the facts” campaign and such.
I get a distinct impression from this article that the target user is a trained typist. It would be interesting to find out if an ergonomist would think differently about a keyboard to be used by users who do not touch type, that is, the vast majority of users.
48 comments
[ 4.8 ms ] story [ 108 ms ] threadThe fun thing is I've seen "ortholinear" keyboards sold for kids because horizontal staggered layout is for adults...
P.S. in my personal experience vertical staggered should be the default layout
P.P.S. and yes bikeshedding
Agree that default physical layout + qwerty as status quo is disappointing, though.
Column stagger is what you see on the Ergodox or Atreus or Mitosis or Iris or any of the recently vast proliferation of ergo designs.
“Vertical stagger” means that the keys are arranged in columns instead of rows, but the columns are staggered to match the resting position of the various fingers.
This is just false. Split keyboards and sculpted bowls have been around since the 70s
Great but it’s the results that count...
They do have the cool hinge on the surface monitor so that’s rad...
The IBM keyboards produced from 1960–1990 are better than anything Microsoft puts out today: faster to type on, more ergonomic, much more reliable, sturdier, ... and of course much more expensive to produce. For particularly nice examples, take a look at these, https://deskthority.net/wiki/IBM_Beam_Spring_Keyboards
Or pick your favorite other vendor. Pretty much all of keyboards sold in the 70s–80s were better than anything available at mass scale today. Back then computers were competing head to head with typewriters, and the best electronic typewriters were really nice to type on. I’m partial to the Canon typewriters of the early 1980s with nice Alps switches, but e.g. some Olympia typewriters of the early 80s were deliciously clicky.
For at least the 2 decades from 1980–2000, pretty much every change in mass-market keyboards was driven by cost cutting. It’s not too surprising that quality degraded.
Even if we assume we can’t change the basic keyboard shape, one of the important features that Microsoft (and most other) keyboards have dropped since the 90s is that further-away rows on keyboards used to be elevated above the home row in a sort of step-like pattern. This makes it much easier to reach the tops of those keys, and therefore speeds up typing them. The original designs from the typewriters of the 60s and 70s were based on research done by Honeywell and IBM and imitated widely, but later keytop profiles (including for modern Microsoft keyboards) were designed by people who didn’t understand the reason for the design, and just imitated a progressively watered down form. (Indeed an even more aggressive step than the ones used on those old keyboards is ergonomically preferable for most typists.)
* * *
All of Microsoft’s fancy lab studies seem to me like A-B testing all of the possible choices of features for a penny-farthing bicycle without ever considering adding a chain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny-farthing
If what we care about is ergonomics (which is to say, reducing static strain on muscles in the hand/arm while using the strong and efficient part of the main finger flexors’ range of motion to type, and reducing the finger and arm motion required to reach the keys), then the Maltron from the 1970s is much better than any of the dome-shaped Microsoft keyboards https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maltron
Better still, my favorite concept is a never-mass-produced ergonomic keyboard design called the DataStealth from the 1990s, http://web.archive.org/web/20000601172323/http://www.protomi... which is in my opinion the most anatomically informed design ever seriously undertaken, developed by an expert from first principles.
But also check out this awesome IBM patent from 1964, https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=63415.0
Or see the Japanese TRON project keyboards, http://xahlee.info/kbd/TRON_keyboard.html
Or more recently, Keyboardio,
In my opinion, being big they have the means and resources to do some wacky and unorthodox experiment. I suppose that's same division that produced a Xbox controller for people with disabilities, it's quite a radical departure from the standard controller that one is used to find on a modern consoles: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/09/xbox-adaptive-control...
But, from what I know, they never tried something like this for keyboards.
Not to me. I ditched their software 17 years ago, but I love their hardware. I’ve used a Microsoft ergo keyboard since the first one.
I literally bought a new one yesterday after spilling water on my old one after having it for the last eight years.
But I can't say that about the USB receiver, it broke after 6 months (it stopped receiving anything frombmouse/keyboard and the plastic cover just broke). The replacement keyboard has almost the same issue with the receiver (loses contact depending ontthe way it is inserted), so I put it in an USB hub so I won't need to touch it and break the contacts. Besides that I love it, and I love that the useless numpad is not the part of keyboard (BTW.I why every 15 inch laptop keyboard is has those is beyond me), I store it in a drawer.
What I noticed is that the key feedback on the new one is a bit different. I think over time those caps are loosing their properties.
Has anyone noticed this or I'm the only one?
If you want an ergonomic mechanical keyboard, the Advantage Kinesis[1] for example, comes in both tactile and linear key offerings. Also, checkout ErgoDox or keyboard.io (I haven't tried the latter).
[1] https://kinesis-ergo.com/shop/advantage2/
Kinesis is far ahead of MS's so-called "ergonomic" keyboards. I know because I suffer from RSI and have tried every model I could get my hands on.
It makes every staggered keyboard feel like a relic from another age, they make no sense to me at all.
I agree with you totally, it boggles my mind and I'm so frustrated that we are still replicating a layout necessary for mechanical levering when it's not required by at least a century...
The Natural has always been a watered-down, cheap feeling keyboard by comparison to thm, with - it would seem - much more attention being paid to not looking too weird than to actually being ergonomic, such as not straightening out the key columns, going convex, putting control keys where the thumbs can reach them, etc. It's pathetic. The only truly positive attribute specific to the Natural when compared to other ergonomics keyboards is that it was cheap, < $100. Although it also felt cheap, wore out relatively quickly making it more expensive per year of potential use, and had a terrible key mechanism that may have negated a good part of any ergonomic benefit - especially after some wear.
I'm biased, of course, I've typed on the "Naturals" and have several Kinesis Ergos. The latter keyboard style is the only thing that's made typing comfortable, and in the office I work in, I'm no alone in preferring them.
To be honest didn't tried too much. I also have an old Kinesis Advantage model, the one with the rubber function keys (I hate them, the Advantage2 has new function keys but they still look cheap membrane buttons) anyway I'm quite satisfied with a TECK 209, it's not perfect but it's more portable than the Advantage if I'm on the go.
I suppose the next one to try would be a Maltron.
One of the blokes at work had an Ergodox and he was kind enough to give me a go. It was great fun - from memory the thumb clusters were closer than the Kinesis which would be great if you have smaller hands (for those who haven't tried the Kinesis Advantage - the thumb clusters are a little far away, using the 2 smallest keys closest to the bottom-centre isn't comfortable for me)
I thought the standout feature was mouse control at the hardware level - think hjkl but moving the mouse instead of your cursor. I have yet to find a way to do that with the Kinesis in software - if somebody can do this please let me know!
The reason I chose the Kinesis is the key wells felt great. It felt more natural for the keys to be the same distance from my fingers as they moved forwards and back in an arc.
The Ergodox was a lot more portable, though I thought I would be frustrated having to set up each half at the perfect distance and tenting each time. You also have a greater switch selection than the Kinesis Advantage if you want something clicky.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sholes_and_Glidden_typewriter
I had 4x Natural 4000 keyboards, they had constant problems due to bad design. Space bar got stuck. Keyboard wiring was prone to corrosion and shortcuts, keys would randomly stop working. Had to disassemble keyboard, wash inside with mild acid and leave it to dry.
At end I did this repair once a month and had multiple keyboards on rotation. I put up with that, there was no alternative at that time.
Bad habits die hard.
Reminds me of the good old days we were fighting Microsoft in Israel, where the local marketing team would prep journalists (one especially made a career out of it) in its offices, who would later publish articles explaining why Linux is so bad for you and why it has no future. The good old “get the facts” campaign and such.