Another way of thinking about this is B is used about 1.5% of all the letters in English language. If you type with 98% Accuracy (which is quite good), you'd have to reach for Backspace for about 2% of the keys you press. Also, most of the times, you'd have to press Backspace more than once. Usually you don't catch the error immediately after you make it, so you have to delete several letters.
Therefore I'd keep backspace on a more comfortable place than B.

Unfortunately, double posting was pretty much required. Even worse, since it is new info, I don't feel terribly guilty about it either. Shocking, eh?

Having switched out the Goldtouch, I am re-evaluating some layouts. This came to me when trying to deal with the stagger issue of the MK-Type (or whatever I was calling it), which might be seeing an similar 'spacebar inclusive' update.

YES! IT IS A NEW LAYOUT!

Hopefully it is a bit better than my last disaster, eh? Anyways, the primary tenant of what I'm tentatively calling the 'ThumbsPlus' mods (though PinkieMinus might be more appropriate) is (are?) Space on the R.Alt, and a single shift on the space bar. To do this, the right home position has to be pushed right against the edge of the keyboard. A two key shift, as opposed to the Wide-Mod's one key shift.

The concept came to me through actual useage this time. Yes, I was actually using one of my own layouts for day to day work, shocking as that may be. Turns out the 'two keys right and one key up' shift of the MK-Type put the resting position of the R.Thumb rather uncomfortably between the Spacebar, R.Alt and Comma. Anywhere I placed it caused some form of wrist extension, awkward fingering or just plain didn't work at normal speeds. Since narrowing wasn't an option, I widened. The unified Shift really opened things up. And there you have it. ... well, here you have it. There I had it. Semantics.

And now, more Eye Wrecking Text Art. TM. Undecided keys left blank. (in case any of you are wondering, I use this awful text art not because I hate you, but because it has fairly accurate representation of key stagger and placement. ...And I hate finding a place to host images.)

Colemak
___________________________________________________________
| ` | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | - | = | BSp |
| Tab | q | w | f | p | g | j | l | u | y | ; | [ | ] | \ |
| BkSp | A | R | S | T | d | h | N | E | I | O | ' | Entr |
| Shift  | z | x | c | v | b | k | m | , | . | / | Shift  |
| Ctr | Wn | Alt | Space              | Alt | W | M | Ctl |
-----------------------------------------------------------


Colemak using ThumbsPlus1 Mod
___________________________________________________________
| ` | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |   |   |   |   |   |   | BSp |
| Tab | q | w | f | p | g |   |   | j | l | u | y | ; | ' |
| BkSp | A | R | S | T | d |   |   | h | N | E | I | O    |
| AltGr  | z | x | c | v | b |   |   | k | m | , | .      |
| Ctr | Wn | Alt | Shift              | Spa | W | M | Ctl |
-----------------------------------------------------------

Colemak using ThumbsPlus1 Angle ANSI variant
___________________________________________________________
| ` | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |   |   |   |   |   |   | BSp |
| Tab | q | w | f | p | g |   |   | j | l | u | y | ; | ' |
| BkSp | A | R | S | T | d |   |   | h | N | E | I | O    |
|      z | x | c | v | b |   |   |   | k | m | , | .      |
| Ctr | Wn | Alt | Shift              | Spa | W | M | Ctl |
-----------------------------------------------------------

Colemak using ThumbsPlus2 Mod
___________________________________________________________
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | BSp |
|   q | w | f | p | g |   |   |   | j | l | u | y | ; | ' |
|    A | R | S | T | d |   |   |   | h | N | E | I | O    |
|      z | x | c | v | b |   |   |   | k | m | , | .      |
| Ctr | Wn |     | Shift              | Spa | W | M | Ctl |
-----------------------------------------------------------

You notice that a good many keys are blank. Remembering the amount of discussion there was about the numberbar, symbols and brackets, I'm leaving these to the reader's imagination. There are simply too many wrong positions for me to discover them all myself.

If I were to make a suggestion though, I would probably recommend something where the Keyboard's Qwerty marking are still helpful. T for Tab, B for Backspace, N for eNter. G for altGrb. Y and U for brackets (same line), H and J for slashes (Just because). M for... well, whatever you want. Maybe another Backspace. Hmm, no. Second Backspace should probably be on the L.Alt. Still, that is the nice thing about this mod. With only one Shift, it actually gives you an extra key to play around with. Also, I am perfectly inclined to leave the number row alone. Mostly because I don't use it much.

The Cons, since someone is going to point them out anyway, are: ... um, well, pretty much most of the pinkie stretches are now inward reaches (or upward reaches if you move stuff to the numberbar). If you believe the TypeMatrix folks though, that is a good thing. I'm not sure if I agree, but if it works in my favor I can at least give it lip service, right?

The left side of the 'ThumbsPlus1' looks like an interesting way of fixing the angle problem (if a bit unaesthetic, hehe). I wouldn't make it wider than one key in the middle myself though, as I partially agree with pafkata. So the old Wide mods, but with the Z on the LShift and the Shift on the Space key etc could be a possibility. However, it wouldn't be great for people who need the AltGr a lot I suppose.

As you know, I've been using a Wide mod since page 1 of this topic (Feb 2010). :) Thus, I feel I have a lot of experience with it now and I must say I think a one key shift feels like the right amount for me at least. I recently moved a pair of more frequently used letters than before into the middle trench (the 'å' and 'æ') and immediately felt that a 2-key stretch really is the maximum I'd want for my index fingers! Or any finger for that matter. That might leave an opening for a 2-key widening you'd think but it's the stretch to the former J key position from a wider mod that kills my right index finger because that's 2.25 keys - so I keep using the left index on that one lest it be too much. In my opinion. I guess you could get away with putting the least-used key in that position (the backslash or something).

I see your point about the thumb and the RAlt key. Furthermore, this depends a lot on your keyboard model: Some keyboards, particularly older models, have a long spacebar that puts the RAlt key so far to the right that I can hardly see how they could get away with it WITHOUT using a Wide mod! Could be a problem.

Good point. I was sure Cevgar had that too covered, but it seems he jumped straight on to row-shifted variants.

I think it may be a "bridge too far" for my tastes. The brackets look very nice there in the middle, and the extra hand spacing seems nice, but there's a price to pay.
• Misplacing both the apostrophe and period seems dire. My own attempts with alternative apostrophe placements fell flat; period should be even worse.
• It also breaks the period and comma apart; they're used pairwise to map <> in the US and my layout for instance.
• Backspace won't be good even with this shift. I'd rather use the Extend way to backspace then.
• RWin is fairly irrelevant to me, as I very rarely use it (unless I map it to a Compose key).
• I find the Return key easy to use with a single-wide mod on an ISO board. That said, I usually use Caps+Space instead so I guess the point is valid.
• The stretches to the middle with a single-wide mod are already enough I feel. It's nice to reach some of them with both hands for variation.

I'd like to move the apostrophe next to H to keep it on the same hand/row. I'd likewise move the period key next to K? The key you call '#' is the backslash key I think? I'd be tempted to put the two slashes up against each other then, on the bottom row. Then the period could move to the home row? It's a bit tricky.

The most important consideration for the apostrophe would be the 's, 't and similar bigrams ("that's it's aren't would've..."). For these, it would be bad to have the apostrophe next to D because of stretches and same-finger.

The slash-question key is so common that it shouldn't be too hard to reach. The backslash is much less frequent for most.

Slashes together:

  +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
  |  Q  |  W  |  F  |  P  |  G  |  [  |  ]  |  J  |  L  |  U  |  Y  |  ;  |
  +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
   |  A  |  R  |  S  |  T  |  D  |  .  |  '  |  H  |  N  |  E  |  I  |  O  |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  Z  |  X  |  C  |  V  |  B  |  _  |  \  |  /  |  K  |  M  |  ,  |  RShift  |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Using the Angle mod as above, it'd also be possible to put the period next to B in the old B position! That's a decent position. But I use the VK_102 key for my Ø letter which is needed now and then so it couldn't go too far off as far as I'm concerned.

Period next to B with the Angle mod:

  +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
  |  Q  |  W  |  F  |  P  |  G  |  [  |  ]  |  J  |  L  |  U  |  Y  |  ;  |
  +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
   |  A  |  R  |  S  |  T  |  D  |  _  |  '  |  H  |  N  |  E  |  I  |  O  |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  Z  |  X  |  C  |  V  |  B  |  .  |  \  |  /  |  K  |  M  |  ,  |  RShift  |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Because of problems with period and apostrophe, I feel that this would be reaching too far. But it's a fascinating thought!

Despite my initial skepticism, I decided to give the wide layout a try. That is, the "standard" version of the wide layout with right-hand keys shifted by one position.

I have been totally converted!  It is a great innovation.  The greater hand separation and much easier reach of the keys on the right-hand side would make worth while on it's own, but there is also the added benefit of the AltGr key being much easier to reach and becoming a genuine thumb key. Very useful for those of us that make use a lot of that key.

It does look a bit weird at first glance with the brackets in a row in the middle. But actually it's the / key that takes some time to adjust to.

But overall there is very little relearning for quite a large benefit. So much so that I feel like the wide layout concept should be taken up by Qwerty users, if anything even more actively, as it would be an quick an easy win for those that touch-type a least!

UPDATE

Got a new mod in the works. Hopefully it will be ready to post sometime this week. As width is only one of several keyboard design issues it addresses, it will be getting it's own thread. Keep an eye out.
... ok, maybe not new-new. I just sat down and gave an old, silly idea a solid rethink.

Features:
-Thumbkeys. Shift/Backspace and Enter/Space under thumbs greatly reduces pinkie work. No key removal required this time.
-4 widths to choose from. All widths maintain familiar home row stagger. With Shift and Enter as thumb keys, no pinkie penalty to those who prefer narrower layouts. (or the Angle Mod)
-Better Mousing, Spreadsheets and Editing. Wait and see!
-and, as always, Layout Independent.

Work still needed to be done.  (For Posting under 'General' category)
-+2 key width layout draft. (+0, +1 and +3 drafts finished)
-Images of layout drafts. (ANSI and ISO. JIS probably unnecessary)

Work that really should be done. (For Posting under 'User Contribution' category)
-PKL demo versions. Ideally, QWERTY, Colemak and Dvorak; ANSI and ISO; All widths; including DreymaR's magic PKL layer.
-Windows Registry/Keytweak files.

Work that will need to be donated by generous readers.
-Linux/Mac/iOS/Android/etc. versions.
-Feedback. Current versions are the product of lots of thinking and very little testing. All of it by me. Some duplicate keys were removed and some probably need to be put back.

I would rather have a symmetrical layout. There is something to be said for a layout that does not feel "contrived". Moreover, the "/?" key becomes farther to reach (the "/" key is heavily used in some programming languages, and in Vi).

Incompatibilities might arise not only when switching OSes, but with physical keyboards as well, because keyboards are optimized for the standard layout, sometimes aggressively, and this can impact not only chords but even single keys.  For instance, on my Thinkpad laptop, I couldn't remap CapsLock to BackSpace because the key does not repeat, since CapsLock is not required to repeat.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your idea, and I am curious to see where it will lead.

hey you've got an extra key than me to the right of the space-bar, thats not very fair?

Hmm yes, I had forgotten about Cevgar's suggestion, it is quite similar. Having space become shift is an interesting idea, I previously tried a dual-role space/shift approach - but it was unsuccessful. I actually type space with my left thumb so for me it makes sense to leave space as-is and relocate Shift, but these could be switched according to user preference.

I have long thought the standard Shift key positions are annoying and awkward. Thumbs are the way to go IMO. In my suggested layout, I would *only* use the thumb-key shift and not the left shift, so the apparent lack of symmetry of Shift keys wouldn't matter. I would probably also redefine apostrophe to be something like AltGr-O to keep it on the familiar finger.

For ANSI users, using this approach to turn left-shift into Z is also quite a nice idea I think.

Another option is to leave AltGr where it is, and simply redefine the RWin key (or menu key) to be thumb-Shift. This would be simpler as it only redefines one modifier key. Don't know whether that makes it easier to configure...

For an ANSI board, I still think I'd go with single-column wide layout, but I do like the idea of having Shift as a thumb key (either Space or AltGr) and keeping Z in the correct place. Then I'd also press RWin into service as the new AltGr.  Something like...

+----------------------------------------------------------+
| ` | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | = | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | - | Back |
| Tab | q | w | f | p | g | [ | j | l | u | y | ; | ' | \  |
| Back | A | R | S | T | d | ] | h | N | E | I | O | Ent   |
|      z | x | c | v | b | _ | / | k | m | , | .  |Shift   |         
| Ctr | Wn | Alt | Shift              | Spc |AGr| M | Ctrl |
+----------------------------------------------------------+

I think the double-wide option would be more likely to work on an ISO board than an ANSI one. It is an intriguing idea. Mind you, I was also thinking about getting a Matias Ergo Pro when the ISO ones become available - in which case maybe the temptation to play around with wide mods may suddenly disappear!

The traditional technique is, obviously, horrible. I advise something like this instead:

I found that my number row technique was a bit fluid, and people may have different preferences so some keys are kept flexible in that image. In my opinion, the strong and flexible middle fingers should ideally serve two number keys each.

I use the left hand for the number 6, which is also in line with the Wide mod. Split keyboards have a tendency to keep the 6 on the left hand, too.

With the advent of the Angle mod, there was a discussion of whether it should affect the upper rows as well. I find that it doesn't really have to, as the hands aren't linear as we've been through several times over. The out-and-up stretches don't feel worse for the pinkies than the straight-up ones; slightly worse for the ring fingers but not enough for me to remap any keys on the upper or number rows!