Breaking the keyboard layout rules…
June 2nd, 2005
The Chicago Sun-Times is running an AP story by Peter Svensson on Ergonomic Keyboards. The story deals with two keyboards, the Kinesis, which we’ve mentioned before, and the TypeMatrix EZ-Reach 2030.
The novelty of the EZ-Reach 2030 is that this ultra-slim keyboard’s keys form a grid, rather than following the offset pattern of the traditional typewriter-style keyboard. The old-style key arrangement was not designed for typing efficiency, it seems, but rather to accommodate the system of levers that mechanical typewriters require.
The author cites a small study and his empirical observation that after a few weeks use, the 2030 does seem to mitigate Repetative Stress injury (RSI), but he is unclear as to where the benefit comes from- is the grid design inherently better, or is the improvement caused merely by being forced to change keying habits?
Update: Read a newer post on the TypeMatrix EZ-Reach 2030.
**Sponsor: Disc of Light Media has relaxation and meditation CDs and MP3s to help you calm the chaos in your life!**
>Add to Del.icio.us | Add to Digg |
Click here to send this page to a friend.
Entry Filed under: Ergonomics
All original content covered under a Creative Commons license.
1 Comment Add your own
1. Video of the Typematrix 2&hellip | March 16th, 2006 at 4:28 pm
[...] Last year we discussed the Typematrix 2030 ergonomic keyboard system (Breaking the keyboard layout rules… June ‘05), novel for having the keys laid out in a radically redesigned grid configuration. [...]
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed