Learning to work with a new keyboard & layout
When developing the wearable keyboard, one of the biggest fears I had was about the learning-curve. Most people will ask about it once they grok the chording keyboard, but I found myself unable to answer on how hard it would be to learn..
There’s loads of people searching on the web for the best ways to learn a new keyboard layout, most of the time swichting away from qwerty to another layout like Dvorak or Workman.
Finding the right information on learning a new layout with chording is a bit different and harder. And there’s another thing I discover while typing my first sentences: the hints are on the inside. Which from my own perspective is upside down. So it looks like the keys are flipped, except your hands are.. I’ll try my best to document the time I spend on the keyboard and how much it takes me to learn it..
To get started before I had my prototype I started out with: asetniop and FreshKeebInLA. I’ve also ordered a Ginny from gBoards to at least get a 10 key keyboard to work with (instead of a remap with Karabiner)
For now I’ve set the modest goal of getting to 25 wpm. (which is still slow, but I’m sure layout changes may happen in the future!) I will keep my log in the table below:
| Date | Action | WPM |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-03 | Practice on asetniop.com (2 hours) | <5 wpm |
| 2021-05 | Practice on FreshKeebInLA (roughly 4 hours) | ~10 wpm |
| 2021-07-01 | Typing on the Prototype 10 (10 minutes) | ~10 wpm |
| 2021-07-03 | Typing on the Prototype 10 (15 minutes) | ~10 wpm |
| 2021-08-29 | Typing on the Prototype 10 (1 hour) | ~12 wpm |
| 2021-08-30 | Typing on the Prototype 10 (1,5 hour) | ~14 wpm |
Now back to more practicing!