In the past decade or so, typing has become an increasingly relevant skill for all to have. Growing up, many children nowadays are subjected to classes which teach proper hand placement and movement, but one designer, Michael Roopenian, hopes to ease the struggle to obtain such skills with a new and innovative keyboard design.
As a child, I was forced to take classes that emphasized the learning of how to “properly” type on a keyboard. Some years later, I seem to have almost completely ignored the attempts to get my fingers on the right keys, though I maintain a hefty 80 words per minute while hardly glancing at the keyboard, and the lessons of middle school seemed to have no effect. With his new design, Michael Roopenian hopes to change how keyboarding is taught with an innovative keyboard that changes the feel of a keyboard in every way possible.
As you may be able to tell from the picture, the keyboard features keys that are extremely unique and have a wood-like appearance. Each key is actually completely unique from any other one on the board, giving each a unique feel, almost like a fingerprint. Most people have to look down at the keyboard to figure which key they are going to press, and the goals of this keyboard is to eliminate that deep down need to look at the keyboard and “attune the keyboard to innate human sensitivities” in your finger tips. For those of you who do not know, your fingers are some of the most touch sensitive things on your body, and with a keyboard like this, it would not take very long before you started memorizing the touch of each and every key.
In the above image, one can see the different techniques used by the designer in order to assess different styles for the keys. While the keyboard has long been established as to it’s layout, Roopenian even gave some of his test subjects the opportunity to arrange their letters in any order they wanted. After all this testing, it was concluded that what users really wanted was the same layout, with a different texture that had “consistency to the design, a solution to overall uniformity and a logical arrangement to the variation.” The solution here was simply wood, and more specifically sandblasted wood grain.
Wood designs offer a uniform look, but also offers the uniqueness in the designs of it bevels and curves. This was the perfect idea for keys on the keyboard, and as you can see from the pictures, offers a really unique looking keyboard. This concept design is something to really admire, as it is truly innovative and could really change how people learn to type, possibly pushing the limits of how fast one can actually type. Michael has many more amazing concepts, and you can check them out by visiting his profile.
Like concept designs? Then check out the Samsung Consolar HD3 Concept and the Xbox Dream Concept.
Via: Michael Roopenian
