The Secret to a Great Keyboard: Inside Clicks’ Button Design

We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more. When you look at a keyboard, what do you see? If you’re like most people, you likely see the key shape and maybe keyboard layout. Here at Clicks, we see hundreds of different decisions encompassing physics, ergonomics, dexterity and feedback, all coming together in pursuit of a world-class typing experience. In short: forget what you think you know about keyboards, look past surface level appearances and dive into the details as we explain the Clicks keyboard buttons.

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🔘 Key Shape: More Than a Look

Round. Square. Chicklet shaped. What’s the difference? The reality is, the shape of the keys is less important than the ergonomics of the key caps surfacing itself. Early keyboard smartphone buttons (like the ones found on the RIM 950 or BlackBerry 7290) were round. Round buttons increase structural integrity of the device because there’s more webbing between the keys. Round buttons also create more edges which make the keys easier to find by touch, and roll on to. As smartphones evolved and needed to become smaller, more compact and thinner, square keys were adopted. But in developing the key caps found on acclaimed keyboard phones like the Bold 9000 or Bold 9900, the industrial design team aimed to emulate the ergonomic impact of round buttons. In moving from Clicks for iPhone 15, to Clicks for iPhone 16, we aimed to improve the overall typing experience by creating an all-new contoured button surface that would contribute to the ergonomic separation between the rows, increase the button surface area and create more definitive strike points for your thumbs. Other subtle contouring enhancements were made to keys like spacebar, return and shift to make them distinguishable by feel, and avoid inadvertent key presses.

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⌨️ Keyboard Layout: Designed for Speed and Muscle Memory

Choosing where to place different characters, symbols and keys is an important decision that contributes to typing speed and accuracy as it has implications on dexterity, and muscle memory. While the ten-finger keyboards we’re accustomed to on our desktops and laptops can (and should) serve as a reference point, a mobile keyboard doesn’t have as many buttons, and so tough decisions and trade-offs need to be made. In making these decisions for Clicks, we tried to put ourselves in the shoes of customers and aim to align with the virtual keyboard layout they would be accustomed to. On Clicks iPhone, this meant orienting the numbers across the top row, similar to the iPhone on-screen keyboard. But on Android, users are more accustomed to a 3x3 dial pad layout. Choosing which symbols and characters to elevate to alternate keys, and where to place them on the keyboard considered common mobile device use cases, key combinations and aimed to establish logical groupings e.g. @ and # being placed together as common symbols used in social media apps.

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🎯 Actuation Pressure: Feel the Click

Achieving a satisfying typing experience is a task that considers multiple senses: a distinct auditory click and a confident key switch. Again, there’s a balancing act here. New mobile typists might enjoy a lighter key switch, requiring less ‘actuation pressure’ to activate the button, but if it’s too light there isn’t enough feedback to type confidently at higher speeds. More actuation pressure makes for a more satisfying keyboard experience, but make it too heavy a force needed to engage the key and the keyboard becomes tiring over longer typing sessions. The size of the key itself makes an impact here, too. The same actuation weight will ‘feel’ different based on the size of the key based on the surface area over which the force is being distributed. The force required to engage the larger keys on the Pro Max or Razr Keyboard will be different from the more compact iPhone Pro keyboard. Key shape, keyboard layout and actuation pressure are just three of the many factors that Clicks obsesses over including key travel, keyboard pushers, key switch materials, key height and beyond… The Clicks Keyboard may not look like some of the iconic mobile keyboards of the past, but looks alone can be deceiving. What’s irrefutable is that Clicks are world class industrial designers, keyboard enthusiasts and mobile technologists challenging the limits of keyboard design that raises the bar on mobile typing.