> drop the rotary encoder, it messes up the height for packing the keyboard away

If that's really a concern the correct approach would be to make the knob low-profile.

> What ergonomic job does this design serve?

This does not claim to be an "ergonomic" keyboard.

> messes up the height for packing the keyboard away

You design things for how they are used. If it is a keyboard meant to live out it's life on desk, then why design for how it is packed away? Perhaps if it was advertised as a portable travel keyboard then designing for storage would make sense.

Well, it is advertised as "ultra-low profile."

I think you are misunderstanding their use of the word ergonomic. They're using it in the literal sense, not the colloquial sense of gimmicky layout keyboards. All keyboards should be ergonomic in the literal sense.

You say gimmicky, I say life-changing. Now, some of them are certainly gimmicks, but split keyboards make it so much more comfortable to type that for trips of more than a day or two where I think I might have to type, I have brought my keyboard with me. (And I'd love a low profile travel version of the Kenesis Freestyle Edge, for those keyboard types who are looking for differentiating features.)

Yep. Ive spent a lot of time looking at the keyboard space and part of the reason i started the subreddit was that there werent many projects, let alone things I could just buy off the shelf, that were fairly portable and ergonomic.

Theres already a number of travel-friendly high end standard layout keyboards (Ive used the Nuphy f1 for the past year which is nice (and was essential to my portable raised tablet setup), but I miss my Kinesis Freestyle split keyboard that was great but impractical to travel with)

> This does not claim to be an "ergonomic" keyboard.

I'm arguing the market already has a number of minimalist standard layout keyboards (the Nuphy lineup, even major brands like Logitech). Making something ergonomic and portable would be an interesting differentiator. The Atreus ( https://shop.keyboard.io/products/keyboardio-atreus ) is a nice example but gets a bit too minimal whatwith not having a number row.

> drop the rotary encoder, it messes up the height for packing the keyboard away.

No please don't. I'm so glad this person designed this keyboard during the lock down presumably alone in a basement somewhere and not by a design committee.

For the rotary encoder, personally I'd prefer a low profile knob ( like https://shop.dailycraft.jp/en/products/encoder_lowprofile_kn... ), I find them more satisfyingly to use, and they don't get in the way of being thrown in a bag.

I wonder if it'd be possible to offer different key caps to allow for user preference for this and font choices.

A roller-style rotary encoder would work better. And perhaps be a better ergnonomic fit for what I assume is its primary use case, scrolling.

Having had a fair bit of difficulty keeping my mouse wheel clean, roller style controls would probably similarly accumulate crud. I'd rather have the knob.

I use the one on my Das Keyboard as a volume knob, it's pretty handy

Rotary encoder is a cool idea but something thinner with a “key” would be better perhaps.