Wanted: a Right-Handed Keyboard

My current keyboard looks like this:

Left-handed keyboard: keypad on right, empty space on left.

(Well, roughly. It actually looks like this, but I couldn’t find a decent-resolution Swedish one.)

This was a sensible design for the right-handed ~~minority~~ majority when it was introduced, some time in the stone age. However, since then, something quite important has happened: the keyboard has been joined by another input device, which I suspect most people use more than the keyboard my most people who are not cursed with an Excel-dominated career.

The ergonomics of the extended keyboard + mouse combination is quite, quite horrible. The human arm is not optimized for sitting turned out 30 degrees for hours at a time.

Apple has tried at least twice to solve this in one obvious way: remove all or part of the junk on the right. This has been widely, or at least loudly, decried, leading to the Extended ADB Keyboard for high-end Macs in the deep past and to extended keyboards for all in the USB era. There is another solution, though:

Right-handed keyboard: keypad on left, empty space on right.

Unfortunately, day-to-day conservatism means that people, in the aggregate, will loudly complain about having to adopt a superior solution if it involves half an hour of retraining. I’m sure many would point out that this is why we still have rectangular QWERTY keyboards in the first place. Still, if anyone can force change down our throats and make us like it, it’s Apple.

About this entry

You’re currently reading “Wanted: a Right-Handed Keyboard,” an entry on Ahruman’s Webthing

Published:: 00:49 on 2009-06-14

Category:: Hardware

About

Ahruman, also known as Jens Ayton, is a thirty-something layabout located in Sweden who writes Mac software in between working as a part-time translator. During 2007, he accidentally became the primary developer of Oolite.

Opinions expressed on these pages may or may not reflect those of any employers past, present, future or in parallel universes.

Michael Nickerson 04:45 on 2009-06-14

Isn’t that just a left handed keyboard? I’ve seen a few of them with the number pad on the left like that.

Jens Ayton 10:04 on 2009-06-14

My argument is that it is, in fact, a right-handed keyboard and the normal type is left-handed. From this perspective, while right-handed keyboards do exist, they’re rare (and the ones I’ve encountered have been unpleasant and cheap-feeling while not actually being cheap).

Mark 01:25 on 2009-06-15

It’s a good idea and I like the mockup—But I don’t like the placement of the 0, ., and operator keys. I’m perfectly comfortable with using numpads with my left hand, I believe that they should keep the same layout. Apparently many manufactures agree as it’s the most common design for a left-side numpads.

Karsten 13:43 on 2009-07-31

first off: i’m not lefthanded and i don’t know how hard it is to use the mouse with the right hand if you’re lefthanded.

however, i don’t understand why people get to choose to use the mouse with their left hand if they’re left handed. If you start using a mouse you need to learn how to control it anyway. Same goes for the keyboard, your hands need to figure out how to type and all.

i don’t think it’s much of a learning difference for left handers to use the mouse with the right hand.

If you use the right hand for the mouse you can use the left hand for that what’s speeding up computer usage a lot: shortcuts on the left hand… all major shortcuts are on the left hand, a,w,s,q,x,c,v,f,g…everything right under the left hand… if you use your mouse with the left hand, you need to use your mouse a lot more in the end…

Karsten

Ahruman’s Webthing

Wanted: a Right-Handed Keyboard

About this entry

4 Comments

Have your say

Recently

Categories

About