There’s a huge world of custom keyboards of all types out there. I didn’t know anything about it until I started looking into different layouts, which I don’t recall why I did; you’re probably here you because you’re looking into it now. Anyway, QWERTY isn’t a good layout ergonomically speaking and there’s a lot of different, better, keyboard layouts out there. QWERTY is, however, a good layout if you’re speaking in terms of compatibility and familarity. Anyway, some of the alternative layouts that are “better” require a different shape than the one you have on your laptop. This usually means that the keys are right above each other, instead of in the staggered pattern. Sometimes it may even be that the columns are offset from each other, your fingers aren’t the same length after all.
Perhaps the most well known alternately shaped keyboard is the Ergodox. This is a split ergonomic keyboard meaning it uses two halves you can position separately. The main point of the Ergodox and many other ergonomic keyboards is to take workload from your pinkies and put it onto your thumbs. Having to hold shift, control and other modifiers with your pinkies while only using your thumbs for the spacebar seems weird when you think about it. A problem with the Ergodox is the position of the thumb keys. For many hands these are just as difficult to reach as some keys with the pinkies. That’s why I have taken a liking to the Keyboardio Model 01 and 100, which place the thumb keys in a row below all other keys.
Since I’ll be talking about the layouts and keyboards separately, I’ll put some links for navigation here.