[Note: I started this response before I saw stevep99's, so that's why they are so similar! :-)]

My own opinion is that moving keys in such a way that you type them with the same finger is generally ok (might make some key sequences harder, might not), and if it's more comfortable, then it's probably a win for you. If you have small hands (you are young, you say), then it could very well be a win. Swapping the 'q' and 'g' is more questionable to me because 'ga' and 'gr' would be more difficult to type (for me), which may not be a problem at low speeds, but once you get fast could be slightly annoying. I mean, the layout would still be a vast improvement over qwerty. And you could always switch them back once your hand gets larger, if it gets annoying.

See also Colemak Mod-DH (https://colemakmods.github.io/mod-dh/) if you haven't already. Its aims are similar to your own.

Edit: to answer the question of why these changes aren't implemented already, one reason is that it involves changing more keys from their qwerty locations. One of the goals of Colemak is to strike a balance between the number of key locations changed from qwerty and the benefit gained. Also, some people don't like having to stretch their pinky to other rows frequently (qwerty/colemak 'q', your 'g'). Incidentally, on my layout (custom, not Colemak), 'q' is where it is on your layout, in part for the same reason as you put it there. However, my whole layout is different, so it's "designed in" to work well in sequence with the other keys. Still, I am an adult male with average sized hands, and I still find it slightly less comfortable to reach the same keys you find difficult. I gather that stevep99 does, too!

Why not keep the G in QWERTY position instead?

The only swaps from Colemak that are relatively "safe", are ones within each finger. Yours will almost certainly ruin some important bigrams, which you may not notice immediately but it'll come back to bite your arse in the long run.

As such, the MLK swaps are among the safer ones. Try them out, by all means. But if you check out the DH-mod discussions, you'll see that I think there are better options once you agree to move these keys around. In particular, if you don't mind moving things around then your K-on-top placement looks promising in your case.

The DH-mods are based on that principle: Achieving desirable modifications without ruining the finely tuned wonder that is Colemak. If you think this is mostly about letter frequencies, you have a long long way to go young Padawan. I was there too, back in 2007, clumsily trying to improve Colemak. I failed utterly and became aware of the complexity of layout and Colemak design (and of modeling), and have since then been doing non-invasive mods to the Colemak layout.

Overall, I heartily agree in your desire for straight wrists! My answers to that are the Angle, Curl and to some extent Wide mods.

See my signature topics for more info.

Be assured that the balance between QWERTY similarity and efficiency is heavily in the direction of goodness for Colemak. Rather, the changes not made in Colemak are largely unnecessary changes, where Dvorak took the whole thing several bridges too far by insisting on changing everything even though some keys were perfectly well placed already in QWERTY. Some are, after all.

Be aware that there are two main DH-mod variants (Steve's DvbgHm and "my" DbgHk). In my opinion, mine is the simpler and better choice for normal-staggered boards, and Steve's reigns supreme on matrix-design boards. But it's mostly a question of preference, which of the lower-mid positions you find good.

The mods aren't all based on ISO layouts. Getting a good (Curl)Angle mod on an ANSI board requires more work but it may still be a brilliant idea. You have the choice between A-Frame (the one in Stevep's picture), Angle-Z (simplest option, but moves the Z to the middle) and some other possibilities.

Again, all is described in my sig topics.

Very nice!  I will be interested to know how you get on. I am sure you will like the new D and H positions!  Will be interesting to know how that L switch feels too, once you are used to it, I don't think anyone has tried that variant before.

Since I am a native German which language includes Ä, Ö and Ü, I have mapped them at their 'mother keys', meaning

[Right Alt] + a = ä
[Right Alt] + [Shift] + a = Ä

etc.

I also wonder how more experienced members have solved those issues.

Hey guys– I wanted to give a quick update on how I am doing and wanted to show you another modification that I have been making.

So, overall I am satisfied. I am now at a point where I can type blindly without doing mistakes, but I still look at the keyboard most of the time since it allows me to type significantly faster. I will gradually move away from that naturally as I get more adapted. I would say I am at about ¾ the speed that I had before, so it’s super useful.

Overall, I am not yet sure if I would recommend the transition to the more average Joe – yes, it’s much, much more comfortable, but so far I don’t see where this layout is particularly faster. I’m not saying the benefits don’t outweigh the costs for me, but I think that this is definitely more for advanced users with specific needs at this point in time (o rly).

What I like most by far is the simple correction of the bottom row, or rather the main and top row – my fingers are now actually actuating the correct bottom keys. I don’t ever want to go back to the weird f’d up nomal positioning!
I am very happy with the K and L swap, as I find the bottom key much easier to actuate, and L is much more frequent.

Anyway – so about eight weeks back or so I had the idea for another modification that I have been successfully using ever since, which is the rearrangement of the number keys.

As you can see, - and = went where [ and ] were before, and finally the top left corner is as dead as it should be. Why would I want to keep the 1 and 2 on the left if my hands are much farther to the right anyway?

The benefits are for me that the layout is more comfortable. Not only are the exclamation mark and round brackets easier to reach, but also, if I am typing some numbers, say, a timestamp, then I can just let my main row fingers slide two rows up and I land almost perfectly on the number keys – on my keyboard, the number row is positioned only slightly to the right, not as much as in the layout picture above.

The downsides as far as I can see are some function impairments, for example I can’t open the Windows Magnifier anymore when I hit WIN and = (which has the + on it) [Oh, I just realized I can hit WIN+0 now and it works! :]. Also, a game (Team Fortress 2) does not seem to recognize a custom layout and therefore [ is 1, and 1 is 3...

I am sure you guys have considered this modification before. How come you are not using this arrangement of the numbers row?

If anyone wants to play around with my configuration, you can download the KLC file here.

Cheers,
Fred

Hey Steve, thank you for your feedback. I don't understand the benefits of the arrangement that you propose? I have only gotten that it is "standard", but why should I care about that?

What do you mean by getting rid of numbers and using a virtual numpad? What does that look like and why does that make more sense?

Thanks for your input, guys! That was very helpful :)

I currently feel like I am in the same place as three months ago when I came across Colemak – I got the idea two days ago to really exploit the AutoCorrect function of Word with which I have been streamlining my input gradually (’im’ becomes I’m, ’we ll’ becomes we’ll, etc.). I thought of t for the, u for you, / for ?, ju for journaling, sis for situations, etc. pp. I’m sure you get where I was going :)

Anyway, haven’t implemented that yet, but I knew that I can’t be the first one having this idea. And so two days ago I discovered stenography, and Plover. Not sure if I want to take a swing at it, but certainly the real actual potential to write at one’s thought’s speed is only given with steno.

YouTube: Plover: Thought to Text at 240 WPM

Yeah, well, I think I will adopt steno sometime in the future. That’s the gut sense that I have right now, similar to what I felt about Colemak.

I totally see where you’re coming from! Surely, your work benefits much more people that way anyway.

I think I am in a kinda rare position in that I am really only typing on my PC keyboard, and ~97 % of what I type is just journaling. Therefore, I think that it would be a worthwhile move to transition to steno, because there is no evidence to suggest that I will be writing less anytime soon. Learning this skill could make quite a big difference in terms of my productivity and market value as an intellectual.

The only thing is, I would have to buy a new keyboard again :D The Ultimate Hacking Keyboard looks pretty nice... I’ll wait with that project anyway, it comes out in September.

For now, I really, really enjoy being able to type extraordinarily relaxed with all my fingers on the home row. Colemak is a winner! Thanks to you guys! :)