Keyboard Builders' Digest / Advent Calendar
The three angles of ergonomics
Where do you start when you want to design keyboards with more ergonomics? A bit of basic keyboard science by nerdbude of the CCH podcast.
Published December 19, 2022
Everyone is talking about more ergonomics in keyboards – a rabbithole in a rabbithole, so to speak. But where do you start when you want to design keyboards with more ergonomics? There are 3 important angles to start with.
Introduction
I'm Philipp or 0x17 or the guy with the German speaking podcast about keyboards – so most of you probably don't know me. I like the variety that comes with our favorite hobby – among other things, the aspect of ergonomics. But from a theoretical point of view, in order to develop the perfect ergonomic keyboard for me one day, I measure angles, distances, move, and ask people about their keyboards and preferences to try to collect and evaluate the whole thing. I put all this and much more into the CLICK! CLACK! HACK! Podcast where I talk about keyboards.
Ergonomics crash course
We all love our keyboards, have fun using and building them, and there comes a point when we want to design our own custom keyboard. When faced with the decision to design your own keyboard, there are endless factors that can be considered. Regardless of form factor and layout, there is another important part – ergonomics.
But why? Because your hands will thank you. There are entire scientific fields that deal with the ergonomics of input devices. There are studies and analyses, evaluations and observations and a lot more. The field of ergonomics is very broad and incredibly complex.
This is not a detailed analysis of keyboard ergonomics, but rather a basic beginner's crash course in ergonomics. Why all this? To make it easier to get started. Many enthusiasts shy away from their own design for various reasons. That's why I hope to break down at least one of the barriers with these basics.
Dear enthusiasts – let me introduce "the three angles of ergonomics". As I said, ergonomics is a huge field but you can break it down into 3 different angles to get you started. If you play around with these angles, you'll get a clear plus in ergonomics and that's good for your health.
1st angle (Alpha)
The Alpha angle is probably the best known. This is the angle that almost every keyboard has. It describes the rise that the keyboard makes from the bottom to the top. Unfortunately, it has become common practice to let this angle increase. The angle between the hand and the surface (desk surface) is measured. In normal condition the angle is 0°, regular keyboards have an inclination between 5° - 8° and therefore overstretch the wrist. You can counteract this somewhat with wrist rests. A better way would be to move the angle to negative, so that the palms and fingers are below the forearms.
2nd angle (Beta)
Let's move on to Beta. Beta is the movement to the left and right of the hands in relation to the forearm. Regular keyboards bring the hands together in the middle and then turn the hands and thus beta outward. What happens here is that the wrists are overstretched, which leads to pain in the long run.
If you design your own keyboard and want to make it as ergonomic as possible, transfer this angle to your keyboard and rather turn the keyboard half outwards to fit your hand or even better split your custom board, so the splits can be placed individually.
3rd angle (Gamma)
Last but not least Gamma. Gamma is in contrast to Alpha and Beta not considered by conventional keyboards. Some of you will know this angle as tenting. That is, the lifting of the keyboard in the middle and sloping outwards. The angle of custom keyboards ranges from 0° to 90°. The most sensible angle would be probably around 45° in order to do justice to the natural posture of the hand, however, scientific literature can't seem to agree on an optimal angle, nor a range. Probably because most trials in this field involve very few participants and rely on their subjective reports.
If you want to design your own keyboard with ergonomics in mind – play around with these angles and you will feel a clear relief of your hands.
Happy Prototyping!
| Philipp (36)0x17 / ph0x17 / nerdbude / cchpod |
|---|---|
| Location | Reutlingen, Germany |
| Description | Podcaster / Keebporn Magazine Dealer / Keyboardscientist |
| Occupation | "the IT Guy" |
| Joined | 2018 (maybe?) |
| Fav. switch | Cherry Vintage Blacks, Koalas, my own Frankenswitches |
| Fav. keycap profile | SA, XDA, DSA |
| Other hobbies | there are other? |
| Software-stuff: | I love NixOS with XMonad and coding in Vim (for me the best toolset ever) |
| Links | https://nerdbude.com, https://corteximplant.com/@0x17 |
Published on Mon 19th Dec 2022. Featured in KBD #108.
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