When Lin Yu pressed the "Enter" key on the keyboard with one hand for the first time, the numbness of his fingertips climbed up along his forearm, like countless thin needles pricking his nerves. The accident took away his right hand, as well as the "left-right hand coordination" that he is most familiar with as a designer-drawing, typing, and shortcut key switching. These actions that were once engraved into muscle memory have now become The problem that requires repeated exploration with the left hand.
He has tried all the products marked "one-handed keyboard" on the market: some keys are so crowded that if you press them wrong, you will have to start again. Some of their own joysticks float like an uncalibrated mouse, drawing straight lines askew. What made him feel most was the thick medical auxiliary keyboards, with square plastic shells with cold and hard edges and corners, which were placed on the desktop like a label reminding him of "different. That day he drew the design draft against the computer, and his left hand switched back and forth between the keyboard and the mouse. The soreness of his fingertips made him drop the digital pen on the table for the first time. "If only there were something that could give everything to one hand." He whispered to the sketch on the screen.
This sentence was later remembered by his designer friend.
The first time we met, the friend was not in a hurry to talk about his needs. He just sat next to him and watched him type with his left hand. Lin Yu's palm habitually curled into an arc, and his fingertips slid all the way from the top left button to the lower right corner, with a slight pause every stretch-that was his struggle with the stiffness of the joints. His wrists are always suspended in the air, because the palm rest of the ordinary keyboard is designed symmetrically for both hands. When one hand is supported on it, the forearm will unconsciously twist inward, and it will be too sour to lift in less than half an hour. "What I want to do most," he pointed to the shortcut bar on the screen, "is to be able to type, move the cursor, and adjust the brush at the same time with one hand, without moving back and forth between the keyboard and the mouse, and without other people's help."
The friend took his words and returned to the workbench full of sketches. The first few drafts are drawn like a clumsy "alien keyboard": the keys are crowded together, the position of the rocker is askew, and even the arc of the palm rest is stiff like a brick. It was not until he remembered Lin Yu's hand, which was always curled up slightly and used to placing it on the table in a natural arc, that he suddenly realized that he should not let his hand accommodate the keyboard, but let the keyboard accommodate his hand.
He picked up the pen again, taking "the natural posture of one hand" as the center, and drew the keys into a sector-just like the fingertips stretching out from the palm, the position of each key just fell within the range of movement of the left hand, and the farthest key could be touched by only a slight extension of the fingertip. The palm rest has been changed to a curved surface that fits the wrist, and the edge has made a round transition, just like a soft cloud for the palm. The mouse joystick, which originally required two hands to operate, was integrated in the position where the thumb is most likely to touch, and two custom keys were added beside it to facilitate Lin Yu to set shortcut keys for drawing.
In order to let Lin Yu get rid of the stereotype of "auxiliary tools", my friend added a faint RGB light effect to the keyboard-not dazzling light pollution, but rainbow colors flowing along the key gaps, like the gradual lines Lin Yu used to draw in the design draft. The shell is matched with matte silver and black. It feels delicate and frosted, without extra edges and corners. On the desktop, it is more like a delicate digital device than a "special tool".
When the first version of the 3D printing hand board was delivered, Lin Yu's fingertips were shaking. He put his left hand into the palm rest, and his wrist just fell on the arc of the fit, without suspension or awkward twist. The thumb is gently rested on the rocker, and the fingertip can just touch the fan-shaped keys-from A to Z, from the number keys to the function keys, the distance between each key is just right, just like it is tailored for his hand. However, during the first test, the problem was still exposed: the feedback of the key was too hard, and the fingertip would hurt after pressing for a long time; The damping of the rocker is too loose, and it always shakes when drawing a straight line.
In the next month, friends came to him again and again with modified hand boards. The inclination angle of the palm rest was adjusted so that his wrist could be placed in a more relaxed posture. The trigger force of the key is changed to be lighter, even if the fingertip strength is not large, it can be easily pressed. Adjustable damping is added to the rocker, so Lin Yu can adjust it softer or more stable according to his own habits. Every time he makes a modification, his friends will ask him to type and draw with his hand board, and write down the moment when he frowns-"the keys here are pressed to push his hand", "the rocker should be more stable", "the light effect is not too bright, shake your eyes at night".
On the day when the last debugging was completed, Lin Yu drew a design draft with this keyboard. The left hand holds the keyboard, the thumb gently pushes the joystick, and the cursor steadily draws a straight line on the screen; the fingertips jump on the fan-shaped keys, and the typing speed is almost the same as when using the two-handed keyboard. When he pressed the custom button and called up the brush of the drawing software with one key, a shortcut he set popped up on the screen: "It turns out that one hand can catch everything you want to do."
On the palm rest of the keyboard, the small triangular logo was shiny by Lin Yu's fingertips. It is not a sign of a medical aid, but a new starting point for him-from that day on, he no longer has to slow down for one-handed operation, and he no longer has to feel frustrated with ordinary keyboards. The rainbow lights flowing on the keyboard are like his re-lit eyes, and in the radian of the palm, there is a "one-hand equality" tailored for him by a friend ".
Later, Lin Yu drew the keyboard into his own design portfolio. He wrote a sentence next to it: "The best barrier-free design is never to'make special things for special people, 'but to allow everyone to be gently caught by the design."