I really like this idea, personally. As a graphic designer, a fair amount of what I do is nudging things around in various Adobe programs, so nixing the arrows is not really an option for me. Something like this might work to get me into 60% boards.
First question: What happened to the period and comma keys? Those seem like they’d be too important to move to the second layer.
Well, for me, the ENTER key must be on the right edge of the layout, so it’s easily reachable by my right-hand thumb (while using the mouse at the same time)
Most of the 65%+ layouts are very annoying to use because of that issue (according to my preference). LOL
Also, don’t have to concentrate where the ENTER key is during long night sessions.
So HHKB, for me, is perfect layout – my thumb is happy.
Forgive me this ghetto-mockup, but it’s just to demonstrate my thoughts
Some of the best proof that can be offered that QWERTY is bad is that people design keyboard layouts that drop keys from the home row. Trolling aside, I think that the period and comma keys are too important to remove.