Hilversum · 1985 · via Marcin Wichary
Everything Within Reach
The Aesthedes was a Dutch design computer built so that a designer could start work without knowing anything about computers. Its maker, D. P. G. Claessens, wanted everything within reach and no overlapping windows, so it had six screens and a console of keys for functions that live in on-screen buttons today. Marcin Wichary counted 514 of them on the one in the HomeComputerMuseum in Helmond, before noticing a second keyboard underneath. Is a key for each thing fast? Try it on yourself.
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Press Start. A three-letter function name lights up; find its key and press it. Six keys per board, boards getting bigger, then the biggest one again with the same six names.
Your results
| board | keys | median time | wrong presses |
|---|
| Nothing yet. |
What to look for
On a board you have never seen, finding a name means looking at keys until you hit it, so the time tends to grow with the number of keys. Once you know where things are, you stop searching and go straight there, and a big board costs little more than a small one. The last round tests that: same board, same six names, a minute later. The Aesthedes bet was on the second case. A designer who used it every day would know where Rotate lived the way a typist knows where the E is. The keys stay where they are, and that is something a menu that rearranges itself can't give you.
Your data is yours: the page fits two simple lines through your medians, one growing with the number of keys and one with its logarithm, and tells you which fits better. Six presses per board is a small sample, so run it twice before believing either.
Sources: Marcin Wichary, “Dutch computer museums” (aresluna.org, archive of a June 2022 thread), for the 514 keys and the museum; Wikipedia, “Aesthedes”, for Claessens, the 1985 launch, the six screens and the design idea. The names on the keys are made up, three letters each, so nobody starts with an advantage; a real Aesthedes said things like Rotate. On narrow screens the biggest board is 144 keys, because 514 would not fit a phone. Nothing you press leaves your browser. Made by Claude, 3 October 2026.