Computer Interaction

I spend most of my waking life interacting with computers. It's only natural for me to spend a fair amount of effort trying to make that interaction as fluid and frictionless as possible. Here's a few things I've learned.

Keyboard

Some people are super passionate about mechanical key switches. I appreciate them too, but I think that key layouts are WAY more important for improving your quality of life at a keyboard.

To date, the three greatest quality of life improvements I have achieved for myself are, in order:

1. Remapping ctrl+h/j/k/l to left/down/up/right;
2. Remapping caps lock to ctrl when held;
3. Remapping caps lock to escape when tapped.

All three may be easily enabled on OS X using Karabiner.

The extra usage of caps lock does become fairly fatiguing for my left pinkie, but it's WAY better than reaching for escape or the arrow keys.

I'm not a huge fan of specifically hjkl, but I can't seem to get the hang of jkil or m,k.. I might soon try something more exotic like mjk, or a left-handed layout—anything to avoid reaching for h.

I actually do appreciate the functionality of caps lock occasionally, so thankfully Karabiner lets me rebind it to combinations of other keys (currently shift+escape). Karabiner also enhances caps-locking by applying it to the number row as well (standard issue for many OSs, but not OS X).

I don't use Dvorak or anything... yet. I haven't ruled it out, but I don't think there's much to be gained from an alternate alphabet layout in comparison with the other customizations that I'm still actively learning and refining, so it's very low priority for now.

ErgoDox

When possible, I use an ErgoDox EZ with Gateron Clear switches and blue O-rings. The switches are similar to Cherry Reds (linear force, no click), but with an even lower actuation force (I found myself accidentally hitting keys a lot at first, but have gradually acclimated). The O-rings make the key presses much quieter (but the releases are still pretty noisy), and raise the bottom-out point to just below the actuation point. I find that I don't really benefit from tactile feedback, but bottoming out on blue O-rings feels much nicer than the atrocious, scrapy, plasticy click of Cherry Browns and Clears, or the brittle "snap" and impossibly-distant reset point of Blues. (I'd be interested to try some Greens or Topres for a day, though.)

I'm too cheap to pay the $45 for the optional tent/tilt legs (and also they don't look nearly long enough for the steep angles I want), so I'm currently angling the keyboard using stacks of post-it notes (abundantly available in most offices!). Once I find a position I'm happy with, I'll try to make something more permanent with a Dremel and a trip to Home Depot.

ErgoDox Layout

I've been regularly changing my layout for 10 months now, and can't quite seem to find on the One True Layout. I've discovered a few important principles, though:

• Keep it decently close to a regular keyboard, to reduce the mental overhead of switching.
  • You'd think you could just map a single thumb key to shift and repurpose the pinkie keys, but a lot of shortcuts include shift as a modifier, so you'll still end up instinctively reaching for it in its normal location.
  • backspace is a really frequently used key, so keep it in the upper-right area, or else you'll find yourself reaching the wrong direction whenever you switch keyboards.
• Change things up one step at a time for an easier learning experience.
  • Go ahead and add a thumb shift if you want it, but don't remove the pinkie shifts until you've trained yourself to stop using them, and you no longer forget what you re-learned after using a regular keyboard for a few days.
• Do as much customization as possible in software, rather in the keyboard's firmware, so it will also apply to to your laptop or other keyboard.
  • Karabiner and BetterTouchTool are great for this on OS X.
• Make sure the left hand can handle all of the following on its own, while the right hand is on the mouse:
  • Respond to pop-up dialogues (tab, shift+tab, space, and optionally return)
    • On OS X, be sure to set System Preferences/Keyboard/Shortcuts/Full Keyboard Access to All controls: this lets you use tab and shift+tab to focus on any button or check box in a dialogue, and press space to "click" it.
  • Switch applications (cmd+tab, cmd+shift+tab)
  • Switch application windows (cmd+`, cmd+shift+`)
  • Switch tabs
    • cmd+shift+[ and cmd+shift+] are universal in OS X, but many applications (including browsers, Sublime Text, and Finder) also accept ctrl+tab and ctrl+shift+tab
  • Delete text (backspace or delete)
  • Delete files (cmd+backspace on OS X)
  • Activate your password manager (you do use a password manager, right?)
• Reaching for the number row is even more annoying on an ErgoDox. A layer with a classic number pad layout helps.

My current layout: 2016-10-02

Pros:

• Thumb shift makes my pinkies happy.
• The left hand cmd and alt are basically perfect; space is steadily growing on me too.
  • An easy-to-reach alt+arrows (navigate between words/paragraphs) is a huge plus.
• Left index is by far the best location I've found for return (way better than either thumb or pinky).
• Karabiner enables ctrl+h/j/k/l in software; layer 2 is handy to not have to hold down ctrl.
• Right-hand-only number pad makes entering OTPs way easier.
• Left-hand-only function keys have a lot of potential.
• I've bound F20 to "Mission Control", and cmd+F20 to "Show Desktop" with BetterTouchTool. Super useful.
• Left-hand home and end are handy for web browsing, especially since both Safari ports of Vimium are unusable.

Cons:

• =/+ is a bit of a reach.
• cmd+space is a little awkward.
  • Could just switch to alt+space.