A product design project

Hello people.

I am an Industrial Designer working on my diploma project.
My subject is a text-entry alternative product.

So far, my initial research covered existing products and methods for
text entry, and my conclusions should not surprise the lot of you.
I have covered about five or more methods of text entry (I would dare
not limit myself to depressing keys), the QWERTY hell and the lacking
products in the category of "Alternative Keyboards".

The common buyer is a lazy one. Unless a person has to, he will not
dare sit and learn a new method - or even a better layout. This caused
the market to drift to people who have suffered injuries and issues
due extensive typing and may not be able to go on using a normal keyboard.

In such a market, products are dealt with as "ergonomic products" in a
fashion similar to orthopedic shoes. They are not desirable like
common sexy products and never breach the barrier to the global market
outside the health-related consumer crowd.

Based on the fact that the market size is so small, the products are
not as refined or of high quality like their gaming product peers. The
gaming market is much larger and only there we see quality materials
and machining, refined ergonomics and efficiency - in a word, good
designs. Good designs are made available through large-scale production.

As of today, a lot of research was made to find alternative methods
for typing and solving ergonomic problems - they just never got to
manifest in quality products. Even the DataHand which I see mentioned
everywhere I go has a lot of problems and it was not refined since
more than a few years (please correct me if I am wrong. I am only just
dipping into the subject).

As a project beginning in an academic frame, I can allow myself to set
free of these limitations and design a project focused on an
efficient, desirable product made for large-scale production and to a
global market - fitting both people who suffer from current keyboards
and people who think ahead and are not suffering yet.

This document is more of less my introduction to you and an
introduction of my project. I would be delighted to have you support
me in my research. I would love to have your feedback and plan on
asking the community some questions soon. Your response could very
well make a difference as design projects (especially academic) are
covered extensively in blogs and magazines.

Thank you very much!
I hope I did not wear you out entirely.
-Eyal M.