buttons - Is it time to reevaluate what keys keyboards should have?

I just got my Google I/O Chromebook and one of the most interesting things about the keyboard layout is that certain keys have been replaced by Google with new ones that are more relevant for an operating system that is a browser.

For instance, the caps lock is now a search button that opens a new tab and focuses the search bar. The F-keys have been replaced by back, forward, refresh, full screen, screen switch, brightness and volume buttons.

There are also no page up/down, insert, home or delete keys. Instead you can use Alt+up/down to scroll full pages and Ctrl+up/down to go to the top or bottom of the page immediately.

Chrome OS is a very progressive operating system built on a new paradigm and lots of new ideas. But does Google taking this step mean that others should or will follow? Is it time to take a fresh look at keyboards and the remnants of keys we've had in place for decades now?

Answer

I recall that Jef Raskin proposed the removal of the Caps Lock key over 10 years ago in his book The Humane Interface, I think advocating an undo key. I don't think it's any more the case now that the keyboard needs a rethink; it's always had issues, but only recently have they begun to be addressed. The ones that come to mind are:

1. 
   

   Caps Lock is basically useless. Almost anything would be better. (This one Google is fighting)

   
   


2. 
   

   Num Lock is just as useless, 95% of the time.

   
   


3. 
   

   F# keys that are modal and basically useless because nobody knows what they do. (Apple has been adressing this one for a while.

   
   



4. 
   

   The awkward space between space bar and the arrow keys that has a couple of modifier keys or whatever that nobody really uses as far as I know. One last keyboard reinvention that springs to mind is the use of the former eject key as the power key on the latest Macbook Airs, although it should be noted that this is the same design as Apple's ill fated eMate 300, way back in 1998.

   
   

The trend is basically that the standard keyboard layout is basically a typewriter artifact, and while it's largely too unpleasant to relearn the regular keys, there's plenty of room for improvement around nonstandardized functions.