When you are actually working and producing, your fingers are dancing over your keyboard for a majority of the time (with the possible exception of artists). A poor keyboard slows you down, doesn’t read key presses accurately, or might cause repetitive stress over the long term from its poor design.
Avoiding these disruptions with a high quality keyboard is essential to optimize your work environment.
Keys to a Good Keyboard
Puns aside, there are a few important areas to consider when shopping for a keyboard. Each has their own set of questions that need to be answered or features that need to be evaluated:
- Size
- Switches
- Layout
- Ergonomics
- Backlighting
- Programmability
- Enjoyment
Size
Does it make more sense for you to have a full sized keyboard with a number pad or a compact keyboard?
Does your desk have enough space to position the keyboard at the right distance so you can maintain good posture?
Are you planning on putting it on a keyboard tray on your desk, and will it fit?
Switches
How loud do you want your switches? Deafening click-clacks, barely noticeable, or undetectable?
Do you find joy in being able to change your key colors and switches out? (There are whole communities around this)
How springy do you want the keys to feel when being pressed?
Layout
You might think that all keyboards follow a standard layout. Experience has shown me that there are many bad ways for keys to be positioned and sized.
Some of the keys to really look out for are Enter, Tab, Backspace, Shift, and the Arrow keys. Are any of these keys that is abnormally shaped or in an odd position can have you hitting the wrong key and causing a heap of frustration?
The size and spacing between the standard alphabet keys is worth checking as well. Keys that are too close together will cause you to “fat finger” letters often and slow you down. Are the keys well spaced for your finger size and natural typing movements?
Ergonomics
Carpal tunnel is no joke and a poorly designed keyboard that you use everyday can contribute to this kind of injury.
A standard keyboard should have a gentle slope up. Does the keyboard have a kickstand to give it an ergonomic slope?
There are some very oddly shaped keyboards that claim to be designed specifically for ergonomics. You can even get a setup that splits the keyboard into two separate components for a more natural hand and wrist positioning. I would recommend considering that setup if you have some sort of physical feature such as broad shoulders that causes greater bends in the wrist when your hands meet over a standard keyboard.
Backlighting
Backlighting isn’t just for aesthetics, although it can look really nice and having a beautiful workspace is good. It can actually help you spot the special character, key, or punctuation that you don’t know by feel.
Staring at a screen can cause your eyes to need to adjust to the lighting in the room in order to see the keyboard clearly. A backlit keyboard allows you to clearly see which keys are which without needing to wait on your eyes to adjust.
Is the keyboard backlit? Do all of the characters show light or just the main character on the keys?
Programmability
Probably the least important feature of a keyboard, but if you are looking to maximize its utility, programmability is ideal.
You don’t actually have to know how to write code for this feature to be useful. Programmability just means you can set up specific key combos or even specific keys to perform macros. A macro just being a series of actions you describe to the program to perform on that specific combo.
Most of us do more repetitive work that we realize and being able to automate some of it with a simple key combo can save you some of your most precious resource, time.
Can you program your keyboard?
Enjoyment
Last and often overlooked is enjoyment.
Do you enjoy typing on your keyboard? The more fun you can have with the sound and feel of your keyboard, the more productive you will be.
If your keyboard causes you frustration, from missed keystrokes or easy accidental key presses you may find yourself wanting to use it less.