Adapt or Design

Summary

99% Invisible – Episode: Adapt or Design
Release Date: June 3, 2025
Host: Roman Mars
Guest: Kurt Kohlsted, Digital Director and Co-Author of the 99% Invisible City

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Introduction: Kurt’s Journey into Assistive Design

In this compelling episode of 99% Invisible, host Roman Mars engages in an intimate conversation with Kurt Kohlsted, the show's Digital Director and co-author of 99% Invisible City. Kurt shares his personal journey following a significant injury that altered his daily life and professional work in design journalism. This episode delves into the challenges of adapting to a new physical reality and the innovative designs that emerged from necessity.

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The Incident and Immediate Aftermath [02:24 – 05:35]

Kurt’s Sudden Injury:
Kurt recounts the night he sustained a severe injury that resulted in the paralysis of his right arm. He describes waking up disoriented and unable to move his arm, leading to an emergency hospital visit.

“And I had to go from thinking of it in terms of being an injury to thinking of it in terms of being a disability.” – Kurt Kohlsted [04:55]

Medical Diagnosis:
Doctors determined that Kurt experienced a neurocardiac event, causing prolonged pressure on his arm and damaging the brachial plexus, a network of nerves connecting the spinal column to the arm. This damage led to permanent paralysis and loss of sensation in his right arm.

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Navigating a Two-Handed World with One Hand [05:35 – 12:08]

Initial Adaptations:
Upon leaving the hospital, Kurt immediately faced the reality of living with one-handedness. Simple tasks, such as putting on clothes or accessing his phone, became significant challenges.

“It immediately becomes clear that there's a lot of adaptation that's going to need to take place.” – Kurt Kohlsted [06:53]

Practical Solutions:
To manage everyday tasks, Kurt implemented several creative solutions:

• Phone Access: Removed his phone from his right pocket and attached it to a holster on his pants.
• Wallet Management: Transferred wallet contents to a retractable key card reader to keep his wallet accessible yet unobtrusive.

Shoe Adaptations:
Kurt tackled the challenge of tying shoelaces by experimenting with various solutions:

• Lock Laces: Utilized kits that allow shoes to be tightened without tying.
• DIY Aglets: Created homemade aglets using heat shrink tubing to prevent shoelace ends from unraveling, achieving a factory-finish look.

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Embracing Magnetic Buckles for Convenience [12:08 – 14:15]

Frustration with Traditional Buckles:
Conventional plastic buckles on items like backpacks proved difficult to manage with one hand due to their rigid and fiddly nature.

Magnetic Buckles as a Game-Changer:
Kurt discovered magnetic buckles, which offer a strong, secure closure that can be easily snapped together and separated with minimal effort.

“The magnet brings it into place and then once it snaps, it's like you need to mechanically unfasten it to get it free.” – Kurt Kohlsted [13:29]

Implementation:
He replaced traditional buckles with magnetic ones on his gear, enhancing both functionality and ease of use.

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One-Handed Keyboard Solutions: The Quest for Efficiency [19:48 – 35:01]

Challenges in Writing One-Handed:
As a design journalist, Kurt relied heavily on writing, which became arduous with one-handed typing. Traditional keyboards were inefficient and physically taxing.

Exploring One-Handed Keyboards:
Kurt explored various one-handed keyboard designs to find a solution that minimizes hand movement and maximizes typing efficiency.

1. Meltron Keyboard:

   • Design: Curved bowl shape allowing fingers to reach more keys with minimal movement.
   • Drawbacks: Only half the keys were within the curved area, requiring excessive hand movement to access other keys.

   “Once you lift it out, you have to move it around a lot.” – Kurt Kohlsted [24:28]

2. Tippy Keyboard:

   • Design: Pie-shaped layout that allows most keys to be accessed with minimal movement and leverages multi-function keys.
   • Drawbacks: Steep learning curve due to the introduction of new key functions and layouts.

   “Learning a whole new keyboard layout and a whole new set of specialized keys… really got to be a bit overwhelming.” – Kurt Kohlsted [26:15]

3. Half QWERTY Keyboard:

   • Design: A mirrored half of a standard QWERTY layout, allowing muscle memory from a traditional keyboard to assist in one-handed typing.
   • Advantages: Utilizes familiar finger movements, reducing the learning curve.
   • Drawbacks: Limited key space required numerous modifier key combinations, complicating usage.

Custom Software Solution:
Realizing that none of the off-the-shelf keyboards met his needs perfectly, Kurt developed a custom software solution. By programming layers of functionality into his existing keyboard, he created a versatile system that allows for both traditional and one-handed typing without sacrificing access to essential keys.

“It's built into whatever device you have… it's free.” – Kurt Kohlsted [33:03]

Curtie Keyboard:
Kurt named his custom setup the "Curtie" keyboard and made it available for free on the 99% Invisible website, complete with setup instructions and key labeling guides for others facing similar challenges.

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Adapt or Design Series and Personal Reflections [34:14 – 35:25]

Adapt or Design Web Series:
Kurt launched the Adapt or Design series on the 99% Invisible website, documenting his adaptations and the design processes he undertook to overcome daily challenges. The series aims to inspire and assist others dealing with disabilities by showcasing practical solutions and innovative designs.

Current Status and Ongoing Recovery:
One year after his injury, Kurt has regained some functionality in his arm and hand but continues to navigate the complexities of one-handedness. He likens his recovery to a "claw game phase," where progress is incremental and sometimes frustratingly slow.

“I'm hoping that eventually that hand can once again be the dominant hand rather than the sort of dumb cousin of my left.” – Kurt Kohlsted [35:01]

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Conclusion: Designing Through Adversity

Kurt Kohlsted’s story is a testament to resilience and the power of design in overcoming personal obstacles. By rethinking everyday tools and interfaces, Kurt not only adapted to his new circumstances but also contributed valuable solutions that can aid others facing similar challenges. This episode highlights the often-overlooked intersection of personal experience and design innovation, embodying the essence of 99% Invisible.

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Further Resources:

• Adapt or Design Series & Curtie Keyboard Instructions: 99pi.org/Adapt

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Produced by Kurt Kohlsted and Isabel Angel, Edited by Kelly Prime, Mixed by Martin Gonzalez.

Transcript

[Roman Mars]

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[Roman Mars]

This message is brought to you by Apple Pay. No matter where you're going this summer, odds are you'll need to pay for a few things like a ride, share a souvenir or dinner at that spot on your bucket list. Instead of digging for your wallet every time, just use Apple Pay. It's accepted anywhere you see the contactless symbol and all it takes is a tap with iPhone or Apple Watch. The best part is you'll still earn the card, rewards, points and cash back you love. Easy setup now, easier travel later with Apple Pay terms apply. This is 99% invisible I'm Roman Mars 99 PI's Kurt Kohlsted is our digital director, the co author of the 99% Invisible City, and just generally someone who thinks and writes a lot about design. So naturally, assistive design, which is tailored for people with disabilities, has been on his radar. But Kurt's personal relationship with it changed pretty drastically about a year ago when something happened to transform the way he moves through the world. Kurt recently wrote a series of articles on our website called Adapt or Design about his journey into the world of assistive technology. He's here to talk about the inspiration for that series and about designing his own assistive tech, some of which he now uses every day. Hey Kurt, thanks for talking to us about this.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Hey Rumen, Yeah, good to be here.

[Roman Mars]

So this all started about a year ago when you sustained a pretty serious injury. Can you tell folks what happened?

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Yeah, well, I went to bed one night with my partner and the next thing I knew I was wandering around my condo in Sort of a daze. And I'm not sure how I got home from her place. Like, I don't really remember, like, an entirely normal day that I spent with her before that. I just kind of, like, ended up in this walking dream state. And I was a bit concerned because my. My right arm was paralyzed, and I couldn't feel anything in that arm. And so I called my girlfriend at work, and she was like, you know, are. Are you okay? And I said, I. I'm not really sure. And I think that's like a universal signal of, like, okay, you're not okay, because if you don't know how to answer that question, that's a bad sign. And so she. She immediately came over to my place from work, and it was like, we should go to the emergency room as soon as she saw me. And I was like, well, I don't know, maybe we should get a second opinion. How about we call my dad first?

[Roman Mars]

Who is. Who is not a medical doctor.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

No, he's a. He's. He's got a PhD, so he's a. He's a doctor, but he's, you know, a doctor of geophysics. So he's like a rock doctor. So, yeah, I wasn't exactly thinking straight. You know, that was very clear. And so my girlfriend talked over me as I tried to explain things, and she's just like, come here now. We need to go to the hospital. And so he did. He came, picked us up, and drove us to the hospital.

[Roman Mars]

So you went to the hospital, you're talking to some doctors, and they're helping you fill in some blanks of this injury. So could you describe what they think happened?

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Yeah. So there was a lot of mystery. There were a lot of tests, and I ended up staying in the hospital for a full week as they sort of unraveled this puzzle as best they could. And what they concluded was that I'd had some sort of neurocardiac event and had wound up unconscious on the floor lying on top of my arm, which cut off blood flow and ultimately did a ton of damage to my brachial plexus, which is this nerve nexus between, you know, your spinal column and your arm. And the nerves all the way down my arm to my fingertips were severely damaged.

[Roman Mars]

Yeah. And at this point, was there a notion as to how temporary or permanent your arm paralyzation was going to be?

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Yeah, it was sort of a slow, slow unfolding because, yeah, I did. I went from thinking, oh, you know, my arm's just, like, asleep. Just, like, really, really deeply Asleep maybe, but, you know, nothing's broken and I'm at the hospital, things are going to be fine. To like slowly understanding, as they explained, things that like, this is not an injury you recover from in days, weeks, months, sometimes even years. Like, it is an injury that you may incrementally recover from up to a point, but it's permanent. And so I had to go from thinking of it in terms of being an injury to thinking of it in terms of being a disability.

[Roman Mars]

Yeah, yeah. The reason why I want to talk to you about this and have this be an episode of the show is that you have a mind that is written and thought about, designed for a very long time. Like all your professional career. You've done it for us for almost 10 years at this point. And this is a world that is designed for two functional arms. And now you put in this situation where all of a sudden the two handedness, or the right handed, dominant two handedness of the world becomes very, very clear. And so what I'm hoping is you can kind of walk us through the world you encountered when you left the hospital.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Yeah. And what I'll say is, while I was in the hospital in my kind of bubble, I mean, I was worried about, you know, things like, like writing about design, you know, this kind of big picture stuff. But you're right, I mean, as soon as you leave that kind of safe, enclosed, contained space, reality hits like a brick. And the first thing you notice is, is in swapping out your hospital robe for, you know, your pants and your shirt, suddenly I'm, I'm sitting there with my, you know, non dominant left arm trying to put these things on and figure out like, okay, well, now I've got my phone in my right pocket, I can't even reach that anymore.

[Roman Mars]

Yeah.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

It immediately becomes clear that there's a lot of adaptation that's going to need to take place.

[Roman Mars]

So what are some of the solutions that you found? Like how did you deal with, you know, your phone being in your right hand pocket and you can't quite reach it.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

So I don't have my right pocket sort of accessible anymore, which means I've got half the pocket capacity. And so what I did was I started pulling things out of that pocket and like hooking those things up in different places. So for example, I took everything out of my wallet and I put it in one of those kind of retractable key card reader things that you use for access to, you know, the bus or the train or your work. So that was good. It got the wallet out of the way. And I took my phone and I put it in this holster, which I could then clip, you know, on the side of my pants. Like everything that I could, I moved somewhere else, keeping it sort of readily accessible, but out of the way at the same time. And one of the very few advantages of wearing a bunch of different slings early on was I had a lot of places to clip things.

[Roman Mars]

One thing that comes to mind as something that is especially difficult to do with one hand is putting on shoes, especially shoes with laces that need to be tied. And it also seems like a weird mental state to be in because the last time you couldn't tie your shoes, you were probably a small child, you know. And so could you talk about how you've managed that particular challenge?

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Yeah, well, at least for me, all of my shoes are laced. So I went out and I looked for something that would be a sort of prefab, you know, off the shelf, all in one solution. And I found these lace locking kits. And they have these widgets inside that you thread your laces through, and then you sort of cinch the widget up and down. It's kind of like, like cinching up a bolo tie. But then, like, you've got a problem because your laces are no longer being looped and tied, and so they need to be shortened. But once you clip your laces shorter, the ends immediately start to unravel. And so the other part of these kits are these tips that clip onto the end, and they're kind of like big and plastic and ugly and ungainly. And so I went out looking for some kind of more DIY subtle solution that wouldn't be quite so loud. And so what I ended up doing is I bought heat shrink thermoplastic tubing, which basically, like, you slot the clipped end of your lace into this. And then, you know, ideally you. I think you take like a heating element or something more official. But I just ran a lighter underneath it to sort of cinch it up.

[Roman Mars]

That's a heating element?

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Yeah, yeah, it's a heating element. And although I will say one thing I learned from that is, you know, don't try this at home, kids. Like, especially when you're one handed. Like, I'm sitting there, you know, like toying around with a lighter, which is hot and burning my fingers. And it was like an early realization that I have one working hand. I cannot afford to jack this thing up right. This is now more vital than ever. But the result is, you have these aglets that look like they come sort of straight out of the factory. And so that's the thing that signals to people, hey, I've got normal shoelaces on.

[Roman Mars]

Okay. So you've got lock laces, which are a great way to adapt the shoes that you already have so that they're easier to put on one handed. But you also looked into some accessible off the shelf options. And what you discovered there was that there were some really innovative, creative shoe designs out there.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Yeah. So lock laces are fast and cheap and they're a great way to, you know, make use of your existing footwear. But I did end up getting a pair of specially designed hands free shoes that basically like, you pop out of them and they break open in the middle. Like they kind of, they like wedge themselves open and you slide your foot out into the air and then when you're ready to put them on, you slide your foot in, press your heel down, and it just locks back into place. And what I love about them is partly, you know, how well they work and that they sort of hug your heel, but also there's this kind of rubber band that runs along the side and that's what locks it into place in both configurations, both open and closed. And so being able to see that structural element, you know, really sort of tickles my design fancy. I love, you know, the kind of honesty and clarity of that design. And I, you know, I think that was part of what drew me to that particular pair.

[Roman Mars]

It's like the Centre Pompidou of shoes, you know, like all the, all the mechanics are on the outside to show you how the thing works.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

It's exactly that. It's very expressive in that way. And yet it also looks like a normal pair shoes. So to the uninitiated, it doesn't look like you're wearing something janky, but if you know what you're looking at, you can see how it works. And that's what I love.

[Roman Mars]

So you found a new design in shoe that you really love. Talk to me about some of the things that you've grown to hate as a, as a person navigating the world with, with one arm.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Yeah, so one of the things that became like the bane of my existence are conventional plastic sign sort of clippy buckles, like the kinds that you find on backpacks and, you know, everything else in your life that carries things. And so one of the problems that I discovered was that buckles are really hard to work with and hard to like, unclick and hard to snap back into place. And you know, those are everywhere, they're on your backpack that are on all these different things. But what I found was when I was looking for this strap to keep one of my orthoses in place, which is the sling that kind of kept my limp arm from dangling and just sort of hanging there, I needed something that would basically serve like a sternum strap on a backpack. And what I found was one that has a magnetic buckle. And once I realized the incredible amazingness of magnetic buckles, I just started putting them on everything. Like, I took a bunch of my stuff to the tailor and, like, had them replace a bunch of things.

[Roman Mars]

Wow.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

I did some of my own and. Yeah. And so now everything that can have a magnetic buckle has a magnetic buckle.

[Roman Mars]

And what makes a magnetic buckle so amazing is that the force of the magnet pulls it together and you can snap it into place and you can kind of do it all with one hand. You just have to get them close together.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Yeah, that's right. Part of it is like the beauty of being able to unclip it one handed, but really like the master stroke is that it just snaps back into place and the hold is strong. Like once you hear that click, it's like that thing isn't going anywhere. That's a really strong connection because it's like both a magnetic and a mechanical connection. The magnet brings it into place and then once it snaps, it's like you need to mechanically unfasten it to get it free.

[Roman Mars]

That's awesome. I mean, it seems to say that most of the world is harder to navigate, obviously with one arm versus two, but also through your injury, you've discovered that some of the world is accidentally, you know, kind of works for a left handed person or one working left arm person.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Yeah. I've become sort of fond of saying that the world is designed for two handed people first, right handed people second, and left handed people last. And in most cases, that's the case. But weirdly, like, when I was kind of gearing back up to, like, trying to drive again, which was, you know, scary, a scary thought, and like I was going to, you know, go off into a side road, you know, like roll around a parking lot, try to figure it out. And as soon as I got behind the wheel and sort of got myself into position and started, I realized like, oh, this is actually like, surprisingly easy because I grew up using a stick shift. But these days your right hand doesn't have a lot to do. It's like the kind of tertiary functions of like windshield wipers and things. Sure. But that's about it. The left hand is what controls things like the blinkers and like, you know, the, the headlights and all of that stuff. So driving around left handed is actually not that bad. Yeah. Which, which I was not really expecting. But it's one of those things you only discover through trying, right?

[Roman Mars]

Yeah, yeah. It's so surprising to me because it's totally true. But like we created so much of the design of the car based on the fact that, you know, changing gears is difficult and is, you know, better used for your right hand mostly.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

I mean, and you're doing it constantly. You have to like that's like, that's where the control from. Right. Is like that gear shifting up and down. It's this regular thing and then when it's gone, it leaves this void of opportunity. Right?

[Roman Mars]

Yeah. So it's so, so funny to me that, that cars might be one of those things that is just sort of accidentally designed for, for left handed people, at least in the, in the US and all. Right.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Yeah. Right. Lots of caveats. But yes, like, like it is absolutely the case that like when I am driving, it's like one of the few, if not the only time when I'm like, okay, thank goodness that like it is my right hand that doesn't work and not my left. That is not normally the case.

[Roman Mars]

After the break, Kurt talks about the surprisingly difficult task of finding the perfect one handed keyboard. You know that moment at night when you're locking up, turning off the lights and you just want to feel completely safe before heading to bed? That's what Simplisafe can give you. Most security systems only take action after someone breaks in. But Simplisafe's new Active Guard Outdoor protection helps stop break ins before they happen. AI powered cameras and live monitoring agents detect suspicious activity around your property. If someone's lurking, agents can talk to them in real time. They can turn on spotlights and they can call the police proactively deterring crime before it starts. Just earlier today I was adding a camera to my security system and I was just struck by how easy Simplisafe is at doing everything. They really live up to their name. Simplisafe. You can customize your security system to be exactly what you want. Visit simplisafe.com invisible to claim 50% off a new system with a professional monitoring plan and get your first month [e-mail] invisible there's no safe like Simplisafe. You booked your flights, you booked your place to stay. Now what adventure doesn't need to begin when you arrive with get your Guide Planning is as much of an experience as the trip itself. Get yout Guide is an online platform where you can discover and book a range of activities in the US and around the world. Choose from over 150,000 experiences, including guided tours, sightseeing excursions, adventure activities, museum tickets, and more. GetYourGuide brings the thrill of discovery to every moment leading up to your trip. No matter where you're headed, get your guide is the best way to connect with your destination with locally vetted and expertly curated experiences. There is something for everyone, whether it's must see iconic attractions or unexpected under the radar gems with flexible booking options, mobile tickets and millions of verified reviews. I'm one of those five star reviews. You'll find everything you need to simplify trip planning and book the best things to do in thousands of destinations. Discover and book experiences for your next [e-mail] that's getyourguide.com let's be real. B2B marketing is tough. You can craft the perfect campaign, but if it lands in front of the wrong people, it might as well be invisible. It's like reaching pro gamers instead of programmers. That's where LinkedIn ads come in. LinkedIn is a network of over 1 billion professionals who actually get business on LinkedIn ads. You can target your buyers by job title, industry, company role, seniority, skills, company revenue and more. So stop wasting budget on the wrong audience and start targeting the right professionals who with LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn will even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign so you can try it yourself. Just go to LinkedIn.com invisible that's LinkedIn.com invisible. Terms and conditions apply only on LinkedIn ads.

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[Roman Mars]

I'm back with 99 PI's Kurt Kohlsted. Kurt, we've talked about some of the ways you've designed around various challenges following your injury, but but we haven't yet talked about one of your most personal obstacles, which is the ability to write. So you are a design journalist. It is your job to write. I know that is your great joy to write. But typing one handed is incredibly arduous. Probably more so than most people realize.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Yeah, the thing that I realized very quickly, and I kind of knew even before I tried it, was that the process of writing isn't just, you know, typing out keys and like you know, hitting letters that make words and things. It's like constantly re editing yourself and like doing all of this on the fly and at speed and jumping between the mouse and the keyboard. So yeah, it's safe to say that that was like in many ways my biggest concern. Big picture.

[Roman Mars]

So I want to talk about speech to text because speech to text has gotten quite advanced in the last few years and I've seen you use it on Slack. But you've said that this is not something that works for you as a writer in a more general sense. Can you talk about that?

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Well, the reality is I do use it. Like it's part of my sort of kit of tools for writing and other things. Like it's great for texting, it's great for emails, but if you didn't know this already about me, I'm a bit of a rambler. So when it comes to writing and like my particular process, like I spend a lot of time going over things and refining and editing on the fly and so forth. For me personally, it leads me down this dangerous path of just being verbose, which I am verbose enough in my everyday life. But one of the things I've learned is that different things work for different people and it all kind of works together in the end.

[Roman Mars]

Yeah. So companies do make keyboards specifically designed for one hand. I know that you got kind of obsessed with trying these out. Can you describe some of your process of learning about one handed keyboards?

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Yeah, yeah. Well, even before I kind of got to those, I really, you know, I looked for ways to do it on a normal keyboard. Right. Like write one handed. But. And what I discovered is there are touch typing systems for doing that. But you move your hand so much it really subjects you to extra stress. And so like it really quickly became apparent that if I was going to stay a writer, I needed like a one handed hardware solution that was really designed for this to minimize hand movement. So I did a bunch of research as one does.

[Roman Mars]

Well, as you do. I don't know as one does necessarily, but go ahead, continue.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Yeah, yeah. I dove very, very, very deep into this and I kind of looked at everything in existence.

[Roman Mars]

So what are some of the highlights of the things that you found?

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Well, I basically narrowed it down to like three choices and they all were surprisingly different. Like it's not like a two handed keyboard where like everything is kind of the same, just like with tweaks and mods, like we're talking totally different layouts and interfaces. And so before I could really decide like I'm going to get one of these especially because they're really expensive. Yeah, I was like, I have to try them. And they also, you know, they're not sitting out at Best Buy. You have to get them somehow. So the first step for me was finding this, this great adaptive tech library here in Minnesota which loans these things out for free, like a normal library, except a normal library that lends out things that are worth like thousands of dollars. So yeah, they sent me these keyboards that I requested and I started using them and seeing how they worked.

[Roman Mars]

That's an incredible service. I mean, every few days I am like wowed by the importance and the sort of great innovation of libraries. And that's just, that's just stunning. Okay, so they sent you a few keyboards to try. Some very expensive keyboards that you'd have to special order. What did you find?

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Well, so I started with this one that's sort of like the Buick of one handed keyboards. It's like this vintage giant 1970s clunker and it's called the Meltron. And it's made by this company that sort of really made a splash in ergonomic design early on, like when that wasn't really a thing, by curving their keyboards. And they started with a two handed design and quickly moved to this really kind of sculptural, very provocative looking one handed design.

[Roman Mars]

You showed me the Meltron. The Meltron is curved in this way that it has this concave bowl of keys. So you sort of set your hand inside of the bowl and from that vantage point you can sort of reach more keys with your hand in one position.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Exactly, exactly. Because like on a flat surface, right, you have to sort of move your hand about. But it's like if you are just hovering your hand and you can flick your fingers in three dimensions, like having that bowl shape is really awesome and it makes things a lot more accessible. But I think what really kind of killed it for me was that only about half the keys are even in that bowl. Like the Alphabet is there and some of like the basic, you know, modifier keys like shift and control are there, but there are a bunch of keys about half that are on these Flat surfaces outside the bowl. So while your hand is in there, it can reach all the keys very easily. But once you lift it out, you have to move it around a lot. And I'm not sure in the end if I ended up moving my hand less or more while using this than a conventional keyboard. Yeah, exactly.

[Roman Mars]

Okay, so the meltron didn't work for you. Another one that you have mentioned to me is called the tippy. That's shaped like a slice of pie. What lessons about one hand typing did you learn about the tippy?

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Yeah, well, like, that shape is really nice. It's like if you splay out your fingers and trace a shape around that sort of flat palm of yours, that's kind of the shape of this board. And that means you can essentially reach everything without anything but a little bit of wrist movement, which is great, like minimal movement. Awesome. And one of the clever tricks that they employed was sort of pushing certain keys off to the periphery that were less important and making the core keys that are like right under your hand serve more functions. So like letters, instead of just being like a letter key that generates either a small or a cap version of a letter, it might also generate a number. And so if you press down a key, you can access this additional layer of functions in that, you know, most accessible part of the board.

[Roman Mars]

Yeah, so you're moving your hand less, but keys take on more functions by using like alt keys and shift keys and stuff people are familiar with. This also required a steep learning curve. And so you decided this was not for you.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Yeah, honestly, learning a whole new keyboard layout and a whole new set of specialized keys using only my non dominant hand, it really got to be a bit overwhelming, to be honest.

[Roman Mars]

I can imagine that.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

And of course, that doesn't mean that this is a bad design. I suspect Tippi could work great for somebody who is young and starting from scratch. You know, somebody who's not burdened by both having to unlearn one system and then learn another system at the same time.

[Roman Mars]

Yeah. Which leads us to one of the designs for one handed keyboards that you liked the best. Which is the half qwerty. Could you describe what a half QWERTY keyboard is?

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Well, as the name suggests, it is kind of like half of a QWERTY keyboard. Half. Almost as if you just cut one in half and kept the left side only right.

[Roman Mars]

So I'm looking at a picture of a now, and it's really small, like maybe half or even a third the size of a standard QWERTY keyboard. And like you said the main keys on this thing are the ones that you'd find on the left side of a standard keyboard, minus the numbers and some of the modifier keys, Right?

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Right, exactly. And so the design is, is made to tap into our muscle memory, our ability to sort of brain body connect with different parts of the keyboard as we touch type. And it's a little hard to picture at first, but just imagine drawing a line down the center of a normal two handed keyboard and then folding that keyboard in half from right to left along that line. It's like closing a book. And so now every letter on the right matches up with a letter on the left and is layered on top of that letter. And then to access that next layer, you have to press a modifier key. So, for example, the Q key is in the far upper left and the P key is in the far upper right. But when you hold down this modifier key, in this case the space bar, it changes the Q into a P. It's like when you hold down the shift key to get a capital letter, right? And from there you can kind of generalize the rest of them. They're all mirrored in that same way. And if this sounds like a little hard to follow and you're having trouble picturing it, that's actually not really a problem because you're not meant to picture it and you're not meant to remember where these things are in spatial relationship to one another. You're meant to remember them with your fingers. And it's that mind body connection that frankly shocked me with its efficacy. Like, I could not believe how quickly my left hand learned to type things on the right side, because I was using the same fingers and the same kinds of motions as I was used to using. Just as, you know, in a mirror image form.

[Roman Mars]

Got it. Okay. So if you hit the Q with your pinky, the other pinky is for the P, which is all the way across the board. And you're basically keeping that consistent in favor of keeping it kind of like in the same relative position on the board. That is fascinating to me.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Yeah, it is really fascinating and a bit magical and really awesome when it comes to the letter keys. But the problem is because you have this tiny board, you have to cram all of these other functions in from other places too. Like, the mirror only gets you at most, you know, two punctuation marks, generally just one letter, you know, from the right side. But these keys have as many as six different symbols. So for example, the Q key gets you to the P key really easily, but you also need it to get you to the right parentheses, the exclamation point, the hyphen. And it also serves on top of all of that as your delete key. So those parts became much harder to learn. And the reality is you have to remember all of these different combinations and there's no safety net, there's no backup plan. At least on a full keyboard you can just hunt and peck around if you forget how to do some convoluted thing. But on this you can, you're just stuck and have to look it up.

[Roman Mars]

So you got all these keyboards from the library, and I'm sending a donation right away as soon as this is over. But in the end, what did you choose for writing and to facilitate your career as a writer?

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Well, so I went into this thinking like, okay, I want an off the shelf solution, right? I want something that's one and done. I'm going to pick one of these three. It's just a matter of like, which one.

[Roman Mars]

Yeah.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

And suddenly I'm like, man, they really all have these advantages that I really like, but they also have these really serious downsides. Like the Mellotron, you still have to move your hand around on a lot. And the Tippy has this completely new layout you need to learn. And the Half qwerty, it's probably my favorite of the bunch, but you have to remember a ton of modifier key combinations to be able to use it even at a basic level, because you know, it has so few keys. So in the end, none of these was like my Goldilocks keyboard. But while I was researching the Half qwerty, what I learned is that some people have programmed their own two handed keyboards to work the same way. So like, you create a modifier on your keyboard and you press it down and it creates a mirror board. And what that means is that you can preserve all the functions on your normal keyboard that's right in front of you, but you can also access this other layer of everything that's on the right without having to move your hand to the right. And that was the key realization that just sort of opened the dam. Because once I did that, right, once I learned that I could fairly easily program my keyboard to work like a mirror board and like a normal keyboard at the same time. I was like, well, what else can I get it to do? And so I created different layers with these different modifiers. You know, there's like a punctuation layer that's accessed with one button and like there's a Layer for the numbers, all kind of mirror as well as the letters. So you can still fall back on your normal layout if you're just hunting and pecking.

[Roman Mars]

Right.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

But you also have this completely new way to learn how to use a keyboard one handed.

[Roman Mars]

So basically you programmed all these layers of functions into the keyboard that you already have. So you can use it as the mirrored one handed keyboard if you want to, but you can also use it as a conventional keyboard if you forget or just don't feel like using the various key combinations because everything is know still there on the right hand side. And that sounds like a brilliant solution.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Yeah, I mean I think of it as the best of all worlds. Right. It's built into whatever device you have. Right. And yeah, I retain all these functions that I had before and it is software based which means you can copy and share it fairly easily. Like you could set this up at home in a couple of minutes. So I also have put it up on our website and like anybody who wants to download and use this thing, which I'm kind of tongue in cheek calling the Curtie, you know, like qwerty, like the files are there, I have like this sort of setup instructions like a guide for labeling your keys with these different kind of layers of functionality. All that's on the website and it's free.

[Roman Mars]

And in addition to that this is a whole series that you created called Adapt or Design. That's a web series of many articles on the website. Can you describe a little bit more about what people will find there?

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Yeah, yeah, well it's like a play on sort of a Adapt or die. But the idea is like, you know, I had to adapt or design my way out of all these problems and so I wanted to share those challenges and solutions with people. So it's a series of articles that are about things like, you know, how to adapt to one handedness including like, you know, challenges I faced and solutions. I found that I'd really like to, you know, help other people kind of leapfrog if they encounter similar situations and, and then also things about kind of long haul recoveries, severe nerve injury and all that that entails and how to kind of organize your rehabilitation and how design can play a role in that too.

[Roman Mars]

Wow. And so lastly like how are you feeling right now? Where are we one year later?

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Yeah, well I'm a lot better in a lot of ways. I've regained some functionality in my arm and my hand. I like to say that I'm at like the kind of claw game phase of My recovery where, like, I can kind of, like, hover my hand over things and, like, drop it down like one of those arcade machines where you gotta try to grab that prize and then, like, lift it back out. And sometimes it works, but often it doesn't.

[Roman Mars]

It really often doesn't. My kids spent an inordinate amount of money in Japan on those machines. Okay.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Yeah, so. So. So I used that as kind of like the inspiration for the logo for, for this. For this series and then. But yeah, like, overall, you know, I feel a lot better. Like, the. The pain, which was at one point excruciating and borderline intolerable, is. And, yeah, I'm starting to be able to incorporate my. My right arm and hand again into functional things. But I am still, you know, when I go for my keys and I open the front door, my left hand is still not smart enough to get the key in the right spot consistently. And it's kind of remarkable to me. Like, you know, I feel like if I was a kid, I probably would have adapted by now, but, you know, as. As an old. My right hand dominance sort of remains and. And so I'm hoping that eventually that hand can once again be the dominant hand rather than the sort of dumb cousin of my left.

[Roman Mars]

Well, I really appreciate you taking the time, Kurt, and for sharing all this with everybody. It really is a great service, so thank you so much.

[Kurt Kohlsted]

Yeah, Roman, thanks for having me.

[Roman Mars]

You can find all of Kurt's adapt or design articles as well as instructions on how to set up your own Kerti [e-mail] Adapt 99% Invisible was produced this week by our digital director, Kurt Kohlsted and Isabel angel, and edited by Kelly prime, mixed by Martin Gonzalez, music by Swan Real. Kathy Tu is our executive producer. Delaney hall is our senior editor. The rest of the team includes Chris Barube, Jason De Leon, Emmett Fitzgerald, Christopher Johnson, Vivian Lej Madonn, Joe Rosenberg, Jacob Medina Gleason, and me, Roman Mars. The 99% invisible logo was created by Stefan Lawrence. We are a part of the SiriusXM podcast family now headquartered six blocks north in the Pandora building in beautiful uptown Oakland, California. You can find us on Blue sky as well as our own Discord server. There's a link to that as well as every past episode of [e-mail].

[Tanks]

What's up, podcast listeners? It's Tanks, host of the It's Me Tanks podcast. Join me weekly on It's Me Tanks as I dive into topics like relationships, why it's okay to feel lonely fighting Summer Comparison and Pop Culture's hottest takes I don't shy away from getting candid about my personal experiences and I want to share all the advice I have learned with you. I'm even joined by some of my friends like Claudia Ashray, Connor Wood and Amanda Hirsch each Friday for our new Office Hours episodes. You can listen to its ME tanks every Monday, Wednesday and Friday wherever you listen to podcasts and don't forget to follow the show so you don't miss an episode in the summer.

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