information aesthetics

I'm not sure that this is anything other than just a quirky reoganisation of a keyboard to appeal to scientists!


From my Chemistry recollections the periodic table is much more about relative reactivity and the properties of the elements and is based on atomic number, indeed it has gone through a number of revisions to better order it.


This table certainly does not add anything by way of interpretation of the relative properties of the keyboard keys, all it is is a representation of the layout of the periodic table with those keys.

unfortunately I don't have the knowledge myself to order the table properly so perhaps I shouldn't criticise but I'd see it as more valid if letters numbers or symbols with similar attributes were grouped together.

The vowels which are the most 'reactive' of letters should certainly be grouped to the left and this does throw up the aesthetic problem of the space bar which should be there as well


There's then the fun of reordering it by language the limited use of Y in German for instance makes a modification necessary.

these are interesting comments alasdair. in contrast to what you claim, it seems you have all the knowledge to design a better spatial constellation!

I like the idea that the "most reactive" letters (a.k.a. vowels) belong on the left. Then the most inert ones would belong on the right, not unlike the "noble gases." But what are the inert characters / keys?

One might say that the spacebar is never inside of a word, thus never "reacts" with letters in the way that vowels do, therefore it is as inert as characters go. Perhaps it's the only one, and it can take up the whole right column ...