Hey community,
The keyboard is what turns our tablet into a 2-in-1, and today we’ll be looking at the design of the keyboard legend…
An absolute legend
Some typists know their keyboard inside and out and never even look at what is printed on the keys. Some even go so far as to show this off by buying a ‘stealth’ keyboard, where the keycaps have no print at all! But for most people, having a legend to refer to ranges from a mild convenience to an absolute necessity. That’s why today, we’ll be taking a deeper dive into the V’s key legend!
A light in the darkness
Before we head into the design portion of this post, let’s have a quick look at the technology behind our keyboard – quite literally. The legend on our keys is backlit, meaning it can be read even in the dark. To achieve this, there is a backlight unit underneath the mechanical layer of the keyboard, which consists of three important layers.
The top and bottom layers are meant to keep light from going where it’s not wanted. Any light trying to escape out of the back of the keyboard is reflected back forward by a reflective film. And any light trying to shine out the front in between the keys is similarly kept in check by a masking layer. This mask, which is the black ‘outline’ on the above photo, is an improvement over our first-gen keyboard, where more light shone out from between the keys than from the legend on the keycap itself.
The middle layer is the light guide, which spreads the light from mini-LEDs along the bottom edge of the keyboard across the entire keyboard. Small dots can be seen in the photo above; these are spots where the light guide attempts to focus the light more intensely. Once the keyboard legend design has been finalized, this layer will be adjusted to focus the light right where we need it. That way, we don’t waste light (and battery power!) by illuminating the back of an opaque keycap and ensure the legend is as legible as possible.
Worth a thousand words
Nobody expects to see ‘left’ and ‘right’ printed on the ◄ and ► cursor keys. An arrow of some sort will get the point across efficiently and elegantly. On the other hand, nobody expects to see icons on an Alt or Ctrl key instead of text – at least, not unless they are a Mac-user.
But there are a number of keys on the keyboard where different manufacturers have different designs; no doubt to match users’ different preferences! For keys such as Tab, Caps Lock, or Backspace, you may find text only, a symbol, or a combination of both, depending on the keyboard. That’s why we want to run a few keys by you and see what your preferences are!
How do you feel about the legend of the following keys?
- I prefer my Shift-keys to have icons only
- I prefer my Shift-keys to have text only
- I prefer my Shift-keys to have both icon and text
- I have no preference.
0 voters
- I prefer my Caps Lock-key to have an icon only
- I prefer my Caps Lock-key to have text only
- I prefer my Caps Lock-key to have both an icon and text
- I have no preference.
0 voters
- I prefer my Tab-key to have an icon only
- I prefer my Tab-key to have text only
- I prefer my Tab-key to have both an icon and text
- I have no preference.
0 voters
- I prefer my Backspace-key to have an icon only
- I prefer my Backspace-key to have text only
- I prefer my Backspace-key to have both an icon and text
- I prefer my Backspace-key to keep the first-gen V’s ‘oops!’ print
- I have no preference.
0 voters
Symbols
Finally, let’s talk about the design of the icons that can be found across the keyboard. Some symbols seem to be universally agreed upon, such as an upward-pointing arrow on the Shift key, or an arrow pointing right into a vertical bar for Tab. Others have some slight variation, such as Caps Lock, where the upward-pointing arrow may be either interrupted, or rooted on a horizontal line. Backspace offers an even broader selection of options, ranging from a simple left-facing arrow to a thick arrow with a cross in it.
Even so, these variants are generally widespread enough to be instantly recognizable – and that is the key for any of these symbols. They work, because there is no doubt about what they represent.
Our first-gen V keyboard had a screenshot button, and the icon was meant to represent a mouse cursor on a screen. But instead, people thought it was the key that turned the touchpad on and off. It was touchpad-shaped, after all, and the mouse cursor indicated it was mouse-related, right?
That’s where the waters become a bit more muddied. Having volume or brightness adjustments on a keyboard came many decades after the first Caps Lock or Backspace found their way onto a typewriter. As such, though the world has settled on some form of standard for many of these icons, other symbols are not quite as universal just yet.
Volume adjustment seems universally tied to the profile image of a speaker driver. But even then, do we represent increasing the volume by adding more soundwaves? By an up-arrow? A plus sign? And is a speaker icon without any further adornments clear as a mute button, or does it require a slash, a cross, or other clarification?
Add to that challenge that the keys do not appear by themselves. It would be inconsistent, for example, to have volume adjustment indicated by up and down arrows, the keyboard backlight adjustments by plus and minus signs, and the display brightness adjustments by bigger or smaller rays of light.
In conclusion, here are the initial designs our designers came up with for the function row symbols. But they are just that: initial. We would love to hear your thoughts, so be sure to leave a comment and tell us what you like to see on a keyboard and what style you prefer for your symbols.
How would you represent display brightness, airplane mode, trackpad, keyboard backlight brightness, media controls, mute, and volume controls?
