Mechanical switches offer a range of tactility unavailable with rubber dome keyboards.

However, they are certainly not the best way of solving the problem of registering a keypress. Rubber dome switches are popular because they are so cheap compared to manufacture.

You lift up your finger a little and the rubber dome plops back into shape and the key is no longer pressed. You press down on a key and the dome collapses causing the key to be switched. As the name implies, these are constructed with a sheet of rubber domes above electrical switches. Typical, inexpensive, everyday computer keyboards often employ rubber dome switches. Generally speaking, it’s possible to define a keyboard as mechanical if it uses mechanical switches for each key.įirstly, let’s consider the everyday alternative to mechanical switches. Mechanical keyboards exist to answer as many of these questions as possible. When was the last time you actually sharpened that sword? How often do you use each of the keys you press? Are the most used keys within easy reach? What about the tactility? How do the keys themselves feel? Is the travel of the keys helpful? Do you wish the travel was greater? Do you wish it was less? What about the sound? Does it annoy you? Does it annoy those around you? Do you have helpful shortcuts to adjust your volume? Skip a music track? Perform an oft-used set of keystrokes? Or what about an easy way to toggle between typing on your computer and typing into your phone? Look down at the grubby, unloved implement beneath your fingers. If you spend 8 hours a day working, and maybe half of that typing, for a 5-day week and 48-week working year, that’s 960 hours of typing on your keyboard every year! Despite that sobering figure, most of us just use whatever keyboard is shipped with the computer. I can’t tell you what’s so bad about using Lobster, but I’m going to take a shot at explaining why you might want to try a mechanical keyboard and feel a greater physical connection to the primary tool of your trade.įor decades, keyboards have been the primary mechanisms by which we interact with our computers. Take a look at the breadth of variety on offer. Just as someone versed in typography can explain to you why a font makes you feel a certain way or has a particular effect on the reader, a mechanical keyboard proponent can extol the virtues of their keyboard, their choice of switches, their particular layout and materials chosen. Others, meanwhile, would be happy to just use Lobster and move on. The endless marveling at the merits of Helvetica. The ability to spend hours pouring over the descenders of various ‘g’ glyphs. The need to choose just the right font for a heading. Let me qualify that analogy.įor those who get drawn into typography, it can become an obsession. For those that have, they likely understand entirely.įor some, mechanical keyboards elicit the same nuanced fanaticism as typography. I imagine that many of you reading this, who have never had a mechanical keyboard, will wonder if I was of sound mind. So it came to be that shortly after, I spent $220 on my first mechanical keyboard. The keyboard that started an obsession: The WASD CODE. As I read and re-read the blurb, I was smitten. I had no idea at the time that there were people actually dedicating themselves to creating keyboards beyond the stock fare shipping with computers. Strap yourself in - this will be a deep dive!Ībout six years ago, a colleague I’ll call Tom, because that’s his name, forwarded me a link to the ‘WASD CODE’ a keyboard focused on the needs of programmers, designed with the help of Stack Overflow’s Jeff Atwood. The different layouts, switch types and even keycap material. How much thought have you put into your primary input device? Ever considered how much better your interface with your computer might be? In this article, we dive into the possibilities of mechanical keyboards.

Mechanical keyboard cowboy analogy