Hi there, and welcome to this short and slightly late monthly UHK update!
We've created a survey that you're welcome to fill out regardless of whether you have a UHK. You can directly affect the development of the UHK and the creation of new models this way.
Speaking of manufacturing progress, we've almost caught up, as the oldest pending order is about a week old. Unfortunately, we're out of palm rests again, but luckily, we'll get a new palm rest batch about two weeks later, and we'll fully catch up with orders then. Consequently, we expect new orders to ship in about three weeks. We'll keep you updated via the delivery status page.
If you got your UHK, tweet about it, or it didn’t happen!
UHK + Battlestation, posted at https://t.co/jriy9WyNa7 pic.twitter.com/JsjTDi60c2
— Ult. Hack. Keyboard (@UltHackKeyboard) January 27, 2023
Thanks for reading this update! We’ll talk to you in a month.
Hey,
I really dig the idea of a survey. Will you share the results with us? That would be really cool.
On a side note (and I realize that this is probably something you're going to decide based based on the survey results anyway):
are you planning on offering a tenting solution with more extreme angles?
Thanks and best regards
Hi Theo,
Glad to hear you like the survey!
I'm sorry, but we don't plan to publish the results. However, we'll release new products that address the needs of ultimate hackers, including the accessory you're after. :)
Cheers!
Awesome - as always thanks for the quick response. Can't wait to see what you are coming up with :)
Just did the survey! Just wanted to ask would there be an option for larger modules. Like a larger trackpad perhaps. Look forward to more unique modules. Thank you!
Yes, we have such plans, but there's no ETA yet. Thanks for filling out the survey!
Hi Laslo
Re: the survey… I missed it but I am sending you this because I’m a UHK user and I want it to be more of a success. I’m a ops and marketing consultant. This is not a sales pitch or anything, I’m gonna stay pretty anon here. I just want your product to be a success.
You have an incredible product. Truly fantastic. But I don’t think it is being promoted properly at all. I’d go so far as to say the promotion of the product is terrible.
I can tell that you are totally a product and technical minded person and that that side of development and company will always be taken care of. It’s always going to be a fantastic product. But that is unfortunately not enough.
I’ve broken down my thoughts into the sections below
1
UHK needs to put more into good marketing and branding. More focus, more effort, more talented people and more money
3
Make the mouse layer a major marketing focus. It’s unique and an absolute game-changer due to never leaving the home row and having quality control over the mouse pointer. Eg: “Do more quicker. Take back your time.” or “Be faster” Become THE ONLY power-user keyboard worth considering.
4
Let people know that they can easily learn how to touch-type MUCH faster with this keyboard - because in split mode it’s easier to touch-type than to hunt-and-peck across the two halves. Have a page on your website which describes and promotes touch typing. Even have a section on your site where people can test their typing speed. Or race against each other like these sites. This will be fantastic for your SEO.
4
Sell other people’s UHK products on your own marketplace. You need to be the “amazon reseller” of everything UHK. The UHK needs to be thought of as the ultimate PLATFORM, not a stand-alone keyboard. And in the process you take a 20% cut.
1. Bags and covers
2. Palm rest options
3. Body designs
4. Compatible keycaps sets
5. Compatible switches
You need to not only be earning money on the sale of one keyboard to one customer. You need to resell to that customer over and over and over with enhancements of all kinds.
5
Create communities where UHK users and enthusiasts can chat, interact and become more passionate UHK promoters. Reddit, TikTok, Instagram, Discord, Slack, anywhere. Activate the community!
6
Get into the gaming market in a big way. Because it’s massive. You need gaming landing pages on your website. Being able to use half the board plus mouse is a game changer for gamers. Talk about speed and response times and the game specific layers.
2
Cater for the keyboard customisation and keyboard cult community. Without them there will always be purist rejectors. These include the instagram keyboard “image” community. You need to gift free boards to coding, gaming, speed typing, etc etc influencers and personalities. Where is the first gold UHK? ;)
5
Cater to the amateur hardware hacker community. Customers need to be able to take the board apart, enhance it, and put it back together. You need posts happening every day of people showing off their enhanced keyboards. Become the hub of the hacker, keyboard hardware maker community.
7
Pitch this as a the kind of product whose quality is not seen any more. The kind of product which will last YEARS beyond any other keyboard. With proper care and replacement parts it will last a lifetime!
You are not selling a keyboard. You are selling 1) enhanced productivity, 2) enhanced style and image. And 3) enhanced comfort
I love the UHK keyboard and want it to be a staggering international success.
I wish you great success.
Anon
PS: Other ideas:
- Sell a lighter palm rest.
- Offer a non split version at a big discount over the split version.
- Run events and competitions for the best custom UHK’s.
- Resell key cap sets on other sites.
- Run google Adwords campaigns for people looking for “best keyboard” and “best ergonomic keyboard”
- Run social media ads showing enhanced productivity and style.
- The website is extremely outdated and needs a total makeover to be slick and modern.
Hi there, and thank you very much for sharing your ideas in such great detail!
Many of our customers expressed interest in a forum, and I'll set up a Discourse forum soon.
I agree that our site looks outdated and will be updated later. I've already taken steps in this direction.
There are many features to highlight, and the mouse layer is a good pick, but it's not unique to the UHK, unlike the modules. I'll carefully consider what to highlight on the updated landing page.
Even some of our direct competitors, who heavily focused on gamers, ended up having programmers as their main customers. The gaming market is saturated, and gamers don't seem to invest so heavily in split keyboards as programmers, so we don't plan to focus on them.
We don't plan to sell on other platforms because it'd cause overhead of many kinds, and we rather focus on our core products. We don't plan to introduce promotional products for the same reason; we have a solid product roadmap that will give our customers the most value based on their feedback, and we'll implement the roadmap over the coming years.
I won't ever work with marketing people. I'm sure you have the best intentions, but I found most of them unethical, and the ROI was poor. We won't run ads and promotions. I'm with ZSA Labs, creators of the ErgoDox EZ and Moonlander; they don't run any ads, promotions or discounts and don't have resellers, yet, according to my knowledge, they're the largest player in this niche market.
I appreciate your help and kind words, even if I don't agree with every one of your suggestions.
I don't want to make an account with that survey platform but I would like to see Bluetooth support and maybe a better trackball module. Personally, I would remove the L.E.D. panel, so the profile looks more clean, and maybe offer a user programmable OLED module for people who want it. The back-lighting can be used for simple status indicators. I use blank key caps without back-lighting right now and don't really like how the blank key caps look with those translucent dots-- some alternative designs might be nice. Feel free to reach out if you want help brainstorming.
Incidentally, my experience with Discourse has not been great. Regardless of what sort of forum you set up, I suggest operating a Matrix space or I.R.C. channels. Also, I think your current website is fine; it's just a bit hard to find the Agent repo and the preview of the UHK 60 v2 doesn't render in my browser for some reason.
Thanks for sharing your preferences, David!
We've recently added Plain keycaps, which, unlike the Blank keycaps, don't contain dots.
I fixed the product page of the UHK 60 v2 yesterday, so its preview should render now. This page may be cached in your browser, so please try it with another browser or in incognito mode, and let me know whether it works.
What didn't you like about Discourse?
Plain might be best for me, but I feel like some more tasteful shape for the translucent part would be nice so the backlight is useful. I'm pretty awful at visual design but something more minimal, maybe a little artistic. Maybe tiny translucent sections on the corners of the keys or short, swooping curves that become larger as they reach toward the centre. I imagine it's not practical to offer many options but I think there is potential for improvement there.
The preview still isn't rendering for me. Probably my browser but I'll upload a screenshot for you just in case. Chromium version 109.0.5414.74 (Official Build) (64-bit).
https://privatebin.net/?8bd7768ee23022c6#FTgeNWbFHX5Mnow9wYewGHWEtrN1Mr7wJr1ydtZtM3Xv
I was actually thinking of Diaspora, sorry. Discourse seems much better than that mess. Their infinite scrolling U.I. feels a bit unusual to me but it's not a problem. I just wish they made their timeline on the right side span the vertical space. Maybe I'll adjust that client side... If I remember correctly, they show message composition indicators, which is a bit weird for a forum but I guess it makes sense.
Thanks for your suggestion regarding the keycaps! Honestly, we don't plan to provide more keycaps options because the demand for additional options is not high enough.
Just fixed the product preview. Any further issues, please let me know.