After long last, my Moonlander Mark I has arrived!
But what is a Moonlander Mark I, I hear you ask?
Well, the Moonlander is a “next-generation ergonomic keyboard” which is fully hot-swappable, programmable, and weird looking. It’s an ergonomic keyboard.
Ergonomic keyboards have been around since the 1970s and are designed to minimize muscle strain, fatigue, and other problems associated with poor biomechanics. This is because regular keyboards force your wrists into a pronated forearm position which causes ulnar deviation at the wrists, as well as protracted and internally rotated shoulders. This position, sustained for longer periods of time (such as a full day of work), can contribute to repetitive strain injuries and add further compression to the carpal tunnel. Working at home can be seriously detrimental to your health! (seriously may be overstated here when compared to other jobs, but hey for effect).
There have been many ergonomic keyboards over the years to address these health-related issues, such as the split keyboard, the contoured keyboard, handheld keyboards, and angled keyboards to name a few. These weird and wacky keyboards have never gained mainstream success and their lifespan on the market has been short-lived.
This could be for a number of reasons; users not wanting to learn a new keyboard when they have grown up using the classic QWERTY keyboards, the widespread nature of conventional keyboards and major manufacturers not wanting to stray too far from this layout, or a secret cabal set against combating market takeover by ergonomic keyboards. Either way, ergonomic keyboards remain a novelty despite their well-proven health benefits (which I won’t get into in this light-hearted blog post, just Google them).
