What are we building?

“Simple ergonomics, beautifully done”

We’re building an ultra-thin ergonomic keyboard with scissor switches (like a laptop keyboard), focused on a clean, minimal design. I’ve always wanted something like this, but it didn’t exist, so I decided to build it. I’ll share the process here so you can follow along.

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Playing a lot of tennis when I was young gave me wrist problems. I felt wrist pain when I used to write a lot during college and again when I started working long hours as a full-time software engineer.

Since I still have a long career in software engineering ahead of me, I want to make sure my wrists last. That’s why I’ve been a heavy ergonomic keyboard user for a while now.

After doing a lot of searching, I could never find exactly what I was looking for. My most important criteria are:

• Ergonomics - A split keyboard with tenting. This helps you position your wrists to prevent pain. When I use a keyboard like this, my pain goes away.

Example pictures showing a normal vs. split keyboard; had to put my phone in my mouth for these pictures...

• Standard 75% layout (like a MacBook keyboard) - I didn’t want to relearn the keyboard layout I had used my whole life. Many ergonomic keyboards have unusual layouts:

When you look at the available ergonomic keyboards on the market today, many of them are:

• Too ergonomic - See examples above; they are trying to lay out keys to align with the shape of your hand for less strain.

• Not ergonomic enough - Some popular keyboards like this one have a little tenting and are not split. These don’t fix the wrist pain for me:
  

• Poor design and build quality - Keyboards that have the right level of ergonomics are often poorly made, like the Kinesis Freestyle2 (all plastic, lots of wasted space, multiple wires).

The Kinesis Freestyle2 marked up with red on the parts that could be better

Still, I’ve used the Kinesis Freestyle2 since it has a standard layout and just enough ergonomics. It works, but the design and build are bad. Can you imagine Apple or Logitech making something like this? Plus, the plastic legs you need for tenting cost half as much as the keyboard itself. That feels like price gouging.

I did some searching for a better option and never found anything that was perfect. Given that I couldn’t find what I wanted, I decided to build my own ergonomic keyboard.

The Perfect Ergonomic Keyboard

If you weren’t stuck with what’s on the market today, what would the perfect ergonomic keyboard look like? For me, it’s simple:

• Just enough ergonomics - Should have the ergonomic features that make the biggest difference in removing wrist pain without going too far.

• Familiar layout - Should feel as familiar as your laptop keyboard. There should be no learning curve. I always hated trying out new ergonomic keyboards and missing keys. I don’t want to maintain multiple muscle memories for my keyboards.

• Beautiful, minimal design - Should be simple, clean, and entirely wireless. It should be visually appealing to anyone. I’ve always felt like a captive user with ergonomic keyboards. My wrist pain forces me to put up with keyboards that aren’t designed well.

• Portable and quiet - Should be easy to take with you if you’re a hybrid or remote tech worker. Also, the keyboard should be quiet so you can work near others or on Zoom without others hearing you type.

I’ve been working on prototypes of this keyboard with a few friends for a while now, and after several iterations I think we’ve made something special that I can’t wait to share! In the coming weeks, I’ll share pictures of the keyboard and talk more about some of the design decisions we’ve stressed.

We’re a small group of Bay Area tech workers trying to build something special on the side. At this point, we have all the designs complete, but there are going to be some major challenges in figuring out manufacturing from the ground up.

Follow along if you’re interested in the keyboard or just curious to learn about how the next steps in our project go. I’ll be sharing lessons learned along the way as we build this in public.

Thanks for reading,
Ryan Peterman