Hands Down™
Touché
It is most absurd to that 150 years after the QWERTY layout was invented to handle concerns of early mechanical typewriters, we are virtually reproducing this harmful system on machines with absolutely none of those same concerns, while adding none of the advantages available with these new machines.
A year after committing to Hands Down full-time,
things are getting more touchy–feely.
things are getting more touchy–feely.
Below are experimental adaptions of Hands Down for touch screens. While I'm skeptical that these will be better than a full text entry system designed specifically for touch devices, these layouts are definitely better than the default QWERTY soft keyboard. And while systems like MessageEase are truly great, and may be better with one finger on a phone (where I use it or Swype!), I've come to realize that the full virtual keyboard is better on a tablet.
※ For now, these are simply implemented with MyKeyboard for iOS, and Keyboard Designer for Android.
Hands Down™ Touché
Hands Down™ Touché is based on the Hands Down Neu family, but anticipating two thumbs or two index fingers, not the whole hand, so in that sense it has been modified for two finger/thumb typing with a general alternating and rolling habit that puts the letters in more easily anticipated locations for Hands Down users. Using My Keyboard's flickdown, common letter sequences like H digraphs (th, sh, ch, wh, gh , ph), special characters or those with diacritics (ç, ß, é, è, è, ü, ö) or French contracted articles (l', d', j') are conveneint and quick.
I had become increasingly frustrated typing on my iPads when I don't have a portable keyboard with me (Atreus/ Corne-ish Zen/ FauxFox/ Ferris/ Naked48/ Rollow). I'm definitely more productive with Hands Down Touché than with the default QWERTY soft keyboard. The advantage has been that when hunting and pecking, the letters are more or less where they should be, whereas with a QWERTY board, I'm increasingly lost! This is most frustrating with letters that have changed places, which is a fair number on Hands Down variations.
The rows have been shuffled to anticipate two-finger typing in a swept arc with the soft keyboard below the text. Word ending symbols/functions/predictive selection are at the top, infrequent symbols that offloaded index fingers are at the bottom.
Outer vs Inner columns have been rethought a bit, most notably H&R brought to the middle to associate with high frequency bi-trigrams.
Q & Z are tucked under K and X, respectively. Tap and hold for secondary characters menu. To speed it up, Qu is also found under K, similar to "Linger Keys" on my Hands Down keyboards.
I've added the H digraphs (th, sh, ch, wh, gh , ph) as a simple flick down on the key. This is not only really fast, it preserves the typing rhythm I've grown accustomed to with the H digraphs on all my keyboards. H is a much les frequently used letter on its own.
I'm learning French and German (preparation for the Hands Down Polyglot project), and have made a few optimizations that acommodate the other letters and diacritics almost seemlessly, either with flick downs or with lingers for other options.
The size and pallet scale nicely from floating to full width docket at the bottom of the screen. While in the floating configuration in would be used with one finger (not ideal), it is still easier to find letters for us Hands Down users than with the default QWERTY. A split "ergo" soft keyboard would be the next logical step.
Touch Down™ —a Hands Down inspired keyboard optimized for one finger typing on touch screens. (experimental)
Touch Down™ is thinking outside the box, sharing the design philosophy of the Hands Down home block, but entirely redesigned for one finger typing or "Swiping" on touch screens with auto-correct. I've been using this layout on my touch devices for a few days now. It has been really easy to learn, and I must say a vast improvement over the default QWERTY soft keyboard!
Fat Finger typing is a challenge on compact screen "keyless keyboards." Hands Down Touch compact addresses this by focusing on the center of the keyboard, keeping common bigrams together for quick swiping, making auto-correct more useful by crossing fewer unrelated keys.
Like Hands Down Touch Q & Z are tucked under K and J, respectively. Tap and hold for secondary characters menu. Qu is also found under K and U.
Watch this space for more on Touch Down development