Will --
Thank you for your interest in the original 2021 Engram layout that you wrote about on your website (https://smote.io/engram).
I wanted to alert you that I just published an open-access paper in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction: "Optimizing comfortable keyboard layouts using human typing preferences and language-dependent n-grams: the Engram Study" (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2026.2665409) describing a new approach to optimizing keyboard layouts in different languages. Instead of assuming speed equals comfort (the paper shows speed explains only ~5.7% of preference variance, a poor proxy), I crowdsourced typing preference data from >500 people and used it to empirically derive ergonomics scoring criteria such as row separation, finger sequence, lateral stretch, and key preferences. These preferences drove multi-objective optimization over English and Spanish n-gram frequencies to produce new Engram-en and Engram-es layouts (https://engram-layouts.xyz/). All data, code, and layouts are fully open source. Please check out the article (and the Supplementary Material for my Engram Halloween costume!). Happy to answer questions.
Cheers,
Arno
arnoklein.info
Will --
Thank you for your interest in the original 2021 Engram layout that you wrote about on your website (https://smote.io/engram).
I wanted to alert you that I just published an open-access paper in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction: "Optimizing comfortable keyboard layouts using human typing preferences and language-dependent n-grams: the Engram Study" (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2026.2665409) describing a new approach to optimizing keyboard layouts in different languages. Instead of assuming speed equals comfort (the paper shows speed explains only ~5.7% of preference variance, a poor proxy), I crowdsourced typing preference data from >500 people and used it to empirically derive ergonomics scoring criteria such as row separation, finger sequence, lateral stretch, and key preferences. These preferences drove multi-objective optimization over English and Spanish n-gram frequencies to produce new Engram-en and Engram-es layouts (https://engram-layouts.xyz/). All data, code, and layouts are fully open source. Please check out the article (and the Supplementary Material for my Engram Halloween costume!). Happy to answer questions.
Cheers,
Arno
arnoklein.info