deskthority

The nominees are: The Cherry G80-5000, the Datahand Professional II, the Kinesis Advantage, the ErgoDox project and the µTRON keyboard.

And the Wingnut for Best ergonomic input device 2012, as voted for by the members of deskthority, goes to...



The ErgoDox is a DIY keyboard project initiated by Dox. The keyboard is split into two halves, each having a columnar layout. It's an amazing project.


Ergodox constructed by litster.

Full results.

I don't think this seems that ergo and I definetly can't see how it can win against either the datahand, kinesis or uTRON.
Seems like a lot of these polls where just popularity contests.

fossala wrote:All of these polls where just popularity contests.

That's more like it...

rodtang wrote:

fossala wrote:All of these polls where just popularity contests.

That's more like it...

HaaTa and Soarer 100% deserved their wins. 7bit also does a lot of work.

No, you were right first time

It is a problem... it doesn't matter how worthy something is, it seems that if it's up against something that lots of people use/buy/desire it doesn't stand much of a chance these days. And in this case, being new and 'homegrown' were surely factors (and rightly so, I think).

Thank you all for voting ergodox! HaaTa and Soarer are well deserving winners this year.

fossala wrote:I don't think this seems that ergo and I definetly can't see how it can win against either the datahand, kinesis or uTRON.
Seems like a lot of these polls where just popularity contests.

There are two ways to do this: either get a small jury of experts, who all get a wide variety of, in this case, ergonomic keyboards, and after evaluating them, make an expert decision, which is probably still flawed (see: the Nobel Prizes, the Academy Awards).

Or get a collection of keyboard fanatics to make a more or less expert decision based on experience, knowledge, desires etc.

Only one way is realistic. Maybe not perfect, but it is a site of typically informed fanatics, not laymen, so all in all I think we're alright, and the vote gives a realistic representation of what's best (unlike votes for Best politician and such which are aimed at laymen). A few bad votes don't change such a popularity contest, the mechanism actually prevents it.

Also you shouldn't take "Best whatever 2012" literally. It is a summary of "What was considered the best or most exciting or hottest, or most interesting etc. in this category in 2012 by the largest chunk of voters, although it's probably a matter of personal opinion for everyone." In this regard I think the ErgoDox deservedly won it, although I don't have one and am a DataHand fan.

Best can also be as in best looking.

I'm not into ergonomic keyboards, but really like the ErgoDox design and hope it will make it's way as a community project.

Thanks everyone, the ErgoDox was a great project to create with the help of the community.

webwit: Although harder to implement, maybe the best way to do it would be to make the final round use either approval (easy in phpBB, everything needed for approval voting was even used in the second round voting) or Instant Runoff (much, much harder in phpBB) voting. (IRV is better, though.)

Fantastic, now you just need to get these beauties out to the members.

The ErgoDox undoubtedly deserves the win. Unlike uber-ergo but scary looking keyboards like the excellent Datahand and Kinesis, it's a design that has the potential to become mainstream, AND it's affordable, customizable, infinetly adjustable. The Ergodox could start a revolution if the masses knew about it. One of the reasons I'm happy to see it on Massdrop is that some non-keyboard enthusiasts will see it. Heck, I wish Amazon or Google did this group buy, and put it on their first page! The world needs to move away from the staggered zig-zag pointless layout of the 1800s typewriter.
Buy it, tell your friends about it, blog about it, and show it to your employer if you work for Logitech, Microsoft, or Apple
I hope designs like this will be mass produced and available in stores in the future.