An Ergonomic Blackberry Keyboard

When you look at the keyboard on a Blackberry smart phone, you see that the keys are arranged in a Smile pattern.  This pattern is ideal for full-size ergonomic keyboards because people have broad shoulders and their hands rest on the keyboard at an angle but it is not ideal for handheld smartphones.

In the layout below, thumbs have to move in and out as they trace a single row of keys.

The Frown layout below is even worse.  In this pattern, the thumbs need to stretch to reach the T and Y.  However, to reach the Z and M, the distance is much shorter which causes your thumb joint to bend and lift up while the whole lower part of your thumb moves back.

While a curved pattern seems ergonomic and definitely is helpful for full-size keyboards, thumbs follow a different pattern.  If you make a fist and wiggle your thumbs you will see that the thumbs move in an arc left to right.  To make your thumbs follow a smile pattern like the Blackberry, you need to pull your thumbs in for the middle of the arc and push your thumbs out at the end of the arc.

Instead Blackberry should organize the keys in a windshield wiper pattern that follows the natural arc of your two thumbs.  This will allow more keys to be accessed by simply moving your thumbs left and right.  Your thumbs will still need to move in and out but this motion will be reduced with the new keyboard layout.

The graphic below shows the improved keyboard layout that uses the windshield wiper pattern that follows the arc of your thumbs.

Windshield Wiper Keyboard Layout

By adopting the new windshield wiper layout, people can reach more keys by simply moving their thumbs back and forth and minimize the amount of in and out motion of their thumbs.  This should decrease typing fatigue and allow Blackberry users to get more value out of their smartphones.