One and two handed keyboard layouts
Do you consider intervened keyboard and mouse use ergonomic on your PC? I bet I could give you an exercise that could kill the nerve of one with a two-handed layout! Note that the original designers of the computer mouse and the first graphical user interfaces (that we still mindlessly clone) also had to decide how users ought to handle the two-handed keyboard and the single handed mouse at the same time. They had to choose between either letting the user touch-type two-handed and occasionally withdraw to position the cursor with the mouse, or instructing to use a single-handed keyboard layout that frees the other hand for positioning tasks. They have chosen the former.
While it does have its use cases, I don't completely agree with it's dominance. It is pretty versatile, but there may exists scenarios where it would be advantageous to keep one hand on the keyboard and the other on the mouse. Compared to the default method, this one is more ergonomic in applications where you need to switch between typing and pointing often.
Come to think of it, this is almost always the case! If you count in hand calibration time for both the mouse and the keyboard, I feel that you would only see great benefit from two-handed touch-typing when you need to write for more than say 10 seconds. This is the case when you are composing a long winded letter or article, sending instant messages, chatting and such. However, don't forget you could switch keyboard layouts between one and two handed with the push of a button (e.g.: the "scroll lock" key).
As a last note, it generally improves comfort if you can position your hands more freely. This includes varying the distance between hands. Notice that since letters are on the left side of most keyboards, and that they contain an excessive amount of (rarely used) keys on the right, you can't place your hands too close. Some even say not close enough, because the farther away the mouse is, the more your hand needs to travel to grab the pointer in case you use the "normal", intervened aim&shoot method. Just to name one hardware solution, you could create separate left and right handed keyboards that have the extra keys on the right or left side of the letters respectively. Also see my "pointer-less" articles for alternatives.
While it does have its use cases, I don't completely agree with it's dominance. It is pretty versatile, but there may exists scenarios where it would be advantageous to keep one hand on the keyboard and the other on the mouse. Compared to the default method, this one is more ergonomic in applications where you need to switch between typing and pointing often.
Come to think of it, this is almost always the case! If you count in hand calibration time for both the mouse and the keyboard, I feel that you would only see great benefit from two-handed touch-typing when you need to write for more than say 10 seconds. This is the case when you are composing a long winded letter or article, sending instant messages, chatting and such. However, don't forget you could switch keyboard layouts between one and two handed with the push of a button (e.g.: the "scroll lock" key).
As a last note, it generally improves comfort if you can position your hands more freely. This includes varying the distance between hands. Notice that since letters are on the left side of most keyboards, and that they contain an excessive amount of (rarely used) keys on the right, you can't place your hands too close. Some even say not close enough, because the farther away the mouse is, the more your hand needs to travel to grab the pointer in case you use the "normal", intervened aim&shoot method. Just to name one hardware solution, you could create separate left and right handed keyboards that have the extra keys on the right or left side of the letters respectively. Also see my "pointer-less" articles for alternatives.
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