Mohammed Musallam skrev:
I believe a simple two character per "key" would be more than enough as a start (where the current phones are 3 chars per key). A full qwerty is too dense, so cut the density in half by bundling 2 keys into one.

The point with the design is not to use modifiers for the keys. You ether tap the key for main function, or press and drag on different directions for secondary functions. Making it almost as fast to reach the secondary function as the main functions.

How many functions per key, and how many keys is factors to experiment with. Think ether 5x3 (like Your design) or 6x3 is the best number of keys.

The number of function per key reasonable is on of:

tap + drag up, down, left, right. 1+4 = 5 functions.

The hexagon design 1 + 6 = 7 functions.

The first but with added diagonal drag, 1 + 8 = 9 functions.

Higher density and higher number of functions mean less need for modifiers to reach input functions.

Lower density and fewer functions mean faster and less error prone input but more need for modifiers. Modifiers are harmful as they have to be inputted in serial.. not parallel like on a physical keyboard.

Think it takes experimentation to find the optimum.

One possibility is to us 5x3 but have an option to add one more column that can be used for user defined keys and app specific accelerators.

/LaH


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