Comment by konaraddi
8 hours ago
Some examples of how this can be accomplished: - double tap some key - hold some key - layers (tapping a particular key changes what all keys do) - holding multiple keys (combo)
It’s programmable so you can change what key interactions cause a certain output.
I feel like there should be a sign on the home page saying "you have to be at least this (arrow pointing at a height) cool to buy this keyboard"
If you don't already know how this kind of keyboard works, we don't care about you and won't bother explaining it to you because you're obviously not worth selling to if you don't already know how a programmable 42 key keyboard works.
You have to pick keycaps, and switches, and maybe buy extra keycaps for some reason. We're not going to tell you why extra keycaps are important or useful, but you should probably buy them anyway for some reason.
I'm pretty sure they would have sold me at least one keyboard, maybe several, if they'd bothered to put even 5 minutes thought into non-keyboard-hipster customers, but I'm clearly not cool enough with my multiple kinesis keyboards, chording keyboards, and mechanical keyboards.
I'm not a keyboard hipster, I'm just a guy who had RSI and doesn't want it again. People like me do actually buy keyboards.
If that's any help I personally found this attitude with a company called Dygma, specifically with their Dygma Defy keyboard.
They have tons of Youtube videos answering basically every question one could have, and the keyboard is substantially larger with more keys which means less wizardry getting used to these kinds of keyboards. Example: which keyboard to buy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8FeBPREzZA
I might end up buying smaller keyboards in the future if I lean more into the whole "modifier keys to do crazy stuff", but for now I'm extremely satisfied with the no-bullshit comfortable solution that the Defy offers me, and I do not care one bit about not using this or that custom firmware. It just works and works well.
Keyboards like the one in OP are definitely not for people who dont know much about split kbs, or who don't know what ortholinear and columnar and home row modifiers and QMK and ZMK mean.
If Dygma seems too corporate, too expensive, or too locked down of a firmware for you, the Glove80 and the Moonlander would probably be the best picks/search terms.
I very much appreciate the politeness and care the people who responded to my comment are bringing to their responses, but the issue isn't the keyboard layouts, it's the mindset that somehow the apparently terrible UX of the QMK and ZMK software is not just acceptable but beneficial.
I've been using programmable columnar split keyboards with modifier keys for decades, and chording keyboards before that. None of those things are at all new, nor are they particularly difficult. What seems to have been added in recent years is this weird keyboard-hipster-macho mentality that seems to have overtaken the community.
If it takes more than a PhD (which I have) and decades of experience with programmable remapable keyboards (which I also have) to use your keyboard, you're doing it wrong. If, as a software product designer (which realistically most users of this type of keyboard probably are) you can't see that, you're probably way too far down a weird keyboard-hipster well and you would probably do well to pull out and spend some time refreshing yourself with a reminder of how empowering good UX actually is. Bad software UX isn't actually "power user" stuff, and pretending bad software UX is an actually good thing is simply denial of how bad one's software UX apparently is.
It seems highly ironic that a community focused on keyboard productivity would fall into this particular hipster macho mindset, but for whatever reason it seems to have taken hold like wildfire. More power to you all, I guess. Definitely keep up the polite and welcoming aspects of the community, and perhaps one day some branch of the community will wake up to the fact that keyboards are a UX affordance, that the keyboard community is deeply passionate about their user experiences, and that a good software UX actually matters and would in fact be a good thing and not a bad thing.
I know this must be frustrating for you, but seriously, don’t start with one like this.
If you have a university nearby, call them and see if they have an accessibility lab, or a service for disabled students. These places usually have all the decent ones, and they will usually let you come in and try them.
failing that, maybe try an ErgoDox EZ or Glove80?