ERDF

WASD is the default basis for keybinds in games. Despite its universal adoption, it is far from a good basis. With some minor tweaks, a far more practical basis for keybinds can be found: ERDF.

Rules

I’ve always used custom controls in games, but I didn’t seriously think about what rules might apply to a good control scheme until I started rebinding my controls for ArmA 3… Again. That game does not fit on a keyboard.

The challenge of rebinding ArmA 3 led me to a few rules:

Avoid choices that prevent you moving and aiming
Maximise the number of keys that are easily reachable
Assign common actions to the most comfortable keys and strongest fingers
Make your bindings easy to use without seeing the keyboard

Layouts

WASD

WASD occupies three entire fingers with movement. It is not possible to move both left and right at the same time, so resting a finger on A and D is a waste. Two fingers is all that is needed: One finger per axis.

Q and E are often used for leaning around corners. However, it is difficult to fully benefit from lean when you are forced to take your fingers off the movement controls that you need to position yourself close to the corner.

We’re left with two fingers that can actually do anything.

The thumb can only comfortably reach Space, and possibly Left Alt. Reaching over Space is doable, but not too easy.

The pinky finger can reach a few keys, almost all of which have interesting properties:

Tab can lead to unfortunate incidents, especially if you wish to use Alt
Caps Lock may cause UNINTENDED SHOUTING in chat
Shift may be especially useful in games that treat it as a special modifier
Ctrl causes hand strain for me

That’s not many keys.

WESD

Before making a big leap, lets consider a minor tweak: Suppose we switch A with E. Now the index finger controls left and right movement, while the middle finger controls forward and backward.

This tweak frees up the ring finger to perform other actions without interfering with movement. Q, A and Z become easily accessible. Although admittedly, the staggered arrangement of keys on a normal keyboard makes Z a bit awkward.

Moving only one key makes it rather easy to get used to this square scheme. Most of the muscle memory is the same. It only took me a couple of days and some nice long sleeps to reach my normal performance.

I was concerned my brain might mix something up in the few situations I still have to use WASD, but surprisingly that never seems to happen. I might accidentally try to use the wrong keys when first loading a game, but as soon as I consciously switch, my brain follows either scheme reliably.

YUHJ

YUHJ is a natural progression from WESD. It’s the same square layout but shifted to the right. Doing this increases the number of reachable keys drastically. It also places the home row bumps on F and J in instantly recognizable positions under your fingers, which is useful in the dark.

The pinky and ring fingers rest on F and G, which are ideal for very common actions. Many other keys are within easy reach and their position takes advantage of any typing experience you may already have.

Even more keys are reachable by stretching the hand, which is a movement I find far more comfortable than contorting my hand to use Ctrl while using WASD.

The thumb is slightly better off. Space is still easy to use, and Right Alt is easier to press than Left Alt was using WASD.

YUHJ is my choice in most games. The large number of reachable keys really helps with ArmA 3 and modded Skyrim.

One disadvantage of YUHJ is that you might have limited space on your desk, or perhaps you are using a laptop where the keyboard cannot be slid to your left. In these cases, simply slide the layout left instead and use ERDF.

The bump on F makes positioning your hand easy. This position is exactly the one you’d put your left hand in for typing, which has advantages when text chat is heavily used.

ERDF brings your hand closer to Shift, which can matter a lot in some games which treat modifier keys differently to normal keys. Or where there is some non-rebindable use of Shift.

I use ERDF for Minecraft, because it relies on Shift for various inventory actions, and otherwise doesn’t require many keys to play.

ERDF can also be used instead of YUHJ to minimize keyboard ghosting issues. Lots of cheap keyboards made with gamers in mind are designed to reduce ghosting issues in the keys around WASD.

Conclusion

ERDF is a much better basis to build keybinds around. It doesn’t give you quite as many keys as YUHJ, but it avoids a lot of technical issues while still providing a lot more comfortable keys than WASD. It’s also very quick and easy to learn.