I found a short article online about my favorite ergonomic keyboard (ok, I haven’t tried more than a few, but it’s the one I ended up buying, and I like it), the Kinesis Contoured. Here’s what the reviewer had to say (I’m quoting a large chunk because last time I just pointed to an article like this, the newspaper did away with the URL after a month):
The $289 Contoured Ergonomic Keyboard from Kinesis lines the keys up in a grid. In other ways, it’s also very different. It splits the keys into two widely separated concave “cups,” one for each hand. It goes even further in offloading the little fingers by putting Enter, Delete and other commonly used non-letter keys under the thumbs.
If found the Kinesis board very comfortable. The cup-shaped keypads mean only minimal movement is needed to hit each key, and the hands move very little. The wide separation of the keypads mean the arms don’t need to angle in.
Getting the thumbs to cooperate was the tough part. They’re used to having an easy job at the keyboard, and it took about three weeks to make them smart enough to distinguish between 12 keys.
The Kinesis Contoured and other products by the company are available from their company at Kinesis Ergonomics.