StiFluQz Keymap

StiFluQz, pronounced /ˈstIflukwIz/ (IPA), is named for the main keys on the alphabetic layers (sti, flu, qz). If a cooler name arises, I may change it.

This is my personal left-handed keymap for half of a Microdox keyboard . I use it primarily with my OS layout set to QWERTY US English or QWERTY US International. My primary goal is to achieve left-handed typing so that the right hand can remain occupied with a pointing device, especially a mouse pen. It is annoying to set a mouse pen down and pick it up again. Specific design goals, mostly related to ergonomics, include:

Compactness

I want to reduce movement of my typing hand. 3x5+3 feels like the largest layout that lets my wrist remain nearly still.

Pinky stillness

Most of my repetitive-motion strain problems are related to my pinkies. To eliminate horizontal travel, I have assigned only one column to the pinky. I have found that holding modifiers does not hurt as much as character typing; therefore only modifiers are assigned to the pinky.

Avoid vertical combos

I have learned from experience that vertical combos (ie. pressing more than one key in the same column) is uncomfortable for me. Therefore, I avoid it. The main exception to this rule is the pinky column. I find it sufficiently comfortable to hold two or three keys simultaneously with my pinky. LCtrl+LAlt, LShft+LCtrl, and LShft+LCtrl+LAlt are all acceptable. The one challenge is LShft+LAlt; this does require the use of an additional finger. Fortunately, this combination is rare in my experience.

Optimizing for letter frequency

This goal is not as rigorous for me as for many designers, because although I primarily type English prose, I do often type in various other human languages and programming languages. Like many designers, I used "ETAOIN SHRDLU" as a starting point, but I raised the priority of some characters that appear more often in the code I write, e.g. x and y.

Combos over sequences

The majority of characters require at least two fingers to type. Many require four. Including modifiers, some may require five or more (e.g. Ctrl+Alt+$). Only one keycode is assigned to a one-shot: LGUI. This modifier is common enough that I cannot leave it out, but not so common that I need it to occupy a permanent place on the board.

Consistency

The use of multiple layers and many combos raises the cognitive load above using a larger, single-layer layout. To avoid making it even more difficult, I make some keys consistent across multiple or even all layers. The pinky modifiers (LAlt, LCtrl, LShft) are almost entirely consistent across all layers. (The one exception is on the Numpad layer, where LCtrl becomes RShft to facilitate text selection when NumLock is on.) As a lesser example, Spc and Ret are consistent across the alphabetic layers.

Reasonable Questions

Even after taking the above into account, there are many reasonable questions that keyboard aficionados might ask about StiFluQz.

Why not an even smaller keyboard like ARTSEY?

I had considered ARTSEY and similar keymaps, but due to their extreme compactness, they all require vertical combos. Moreover, they tend to rely on autoshift and autocomplete, which does not work well when I am typing something other than English prose.

Why not ASETNIOP?

ASETNIOP shares some problems with ARTSEY, but more basically, it requires two hands.

Why the Microdox in particular?

I started planning by sketching what I thought would be ideal. I then looked around the internet to see what others were working on in the area of small ergonomic keyboards. I soon discovered Ergogen, which I used to refine my ideas further. Ergogen also led me to the Absolem keyboard, which I considered trying, but then I found the Microdox and decided that I liked its compactness. Not only is the Microdox smaller than the Absolem, it also groups the thumb keys closer, which makes it easier to press two at a time. This gives me two more layers.

What about the other half of the Microdox?

For my purposes, I don't need the right half. However, as you can see in my keymap.c file, I programmed it to mirror the left half. This means that with both halves, alternating typing is possible, like with Taipo. If I wanted to use the right side without mirroring, I would probably turn it into a macropad. (For now, it remains unbuilt.)