My potential 30 key layout

[discussion]

Currently, I'm working on a 34 key Sweep that I built with help of splitkb Aurora Sweep series. But I'm thinking of building a simpler wireless keyboard with 30 keys. Since the top 4 keys for pinky and index finger are harder to reach than anything else, I feel like this layout could be really good on reducing finger movement even more.

I choose 30 keys because I don’t have to have (don’t want to have) another alpha layer. This setup gives me a complete alpha, symbol, number, and extend layers all condensed down to 3 layers. Upper (extend and number), lower (symbols and nav), with lots more extensions for combos and such. After trying and setting up combos, I prefer them over going to a layer to do what I want. 

I also combined most used mouse heavy tasks and shortcuts to the left hand. Like delete, backspace, enter, copy, paste, cut, undo, redo, etc on the left hand via combos or the upper (extend) layer. My right hand is heavy on nav of text and typing when both hands are on the board. 

I have home row mods on the bottom layer due to the home row having my most typed keys. So far after > 1 year of typing on this layout I have not had any issues with mods being activated with typing. Maybe a couple times with typing 'cd' I would get 'gui + d' but it was not a lot of times that that happened. There’s probably some redundancy in terms of keys or combos that I can take away. I also think that removing the 4 extra index finger keys 'G,V,M,K' and implementing a second alpha layer could make this board even sweeter, but I wouldn't know where to put any more symbols or letters ;/

Anyways, am open to feedback on the layout to see how I can improve it even further. (drawn using excalidraw :)

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Posted Nov 12, 2024, 8:33 PM UTC

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