The Kinesis advantage keyboard is a wonderful keyboard that I keep coming back to, but it takes some adjustments to make it really work well for me. Luckily, this is very simple: the Kinesis keyboard has programmable firmware.
The default layout is not bad:
You can see that the keys are arranged in columns, instead of rows. You’ve also got some nice ‘thumb clusters’ that help take the strain off of my pinkies.
Here are the adjustments that I recommend:
The blue keys are changed compared to the original layout.
Some advantages:
- Easier access to the control keys
- Easier access to the Escape key (don’t need Capslock)
- Down arrow key is below “j” and up arrow key is below “k”, so more like vim
- Space is on the left (I hit the spacebar with my left thumb)
The green key seems redundant to me, and I have not yet figured out what to do with it, if anything.
The keyboards are quite expensive, but I am able to find units going for about ~100 USD on Craigslist in my area.