Unless you are a Keyboard enthusiast or gamer, with customized versions for specific tasks, there’s a good chance you’re currently using the keyboard you first saw on a Best Buy shelf. You probably don’t know anything about it, other than the fact that it works and gets you through the day. But a company called Nuio, co-founded by brothers Tom and Greg Wilson, wants to up the ante on regular keyboards, starting with the flow keyboard—A premium, ergonomic, fully wireless, split keyboard.
As an ergonomic accessories company, the Wilson brothers have created an entire ecosystem centered around Flow. In addition to the split keyboard, NIUO offers a host of high-end magnetic accessories to go with it, including a trackpad, a desktop, adjustable stands, and wrist straps. Everything is sold separately, you can customize your setup for maximum convenience. And since the entire setup is wireless, you can use it virtually anywhere, whether at your desk, on a flight, or even on your lap.
While the Flow Keyboard is essentially just another split keyboard, Niuo has set out to redefine what it means to have a “standard” keyboard by customizing everything from the shape of the base to the keys themselves. I’ve only been using it for a week, but it has changed the way I think about my everyday keyboard. It is currently available for pre-order directly from The site of Nuio starting at $399 and will ship starting December 1st.
Compact and clean
Nuio was founded by Tom Wilson (CEO) and Greg Wilson (CMO), brothers who have extensive experience in the design and technology space. Tom Wilson is a former Apple executive who worked on the company’s portable devices such as MacBooks. Greg Wilson was a designer at the renowned industrial design firm Frog Design (Tom Wilson also worked there at one point) and also had his own consultancy called Wilson & Co.
When the brothers began brainstorming ideas for a new company, they wanted to focus on a product that hadn’t changed in a long time. With Tom’s experience in hardware components, they came to the keyboard.
“We wanted to start with the keyboard simply because not only had it not changed, but it’s literally been 40 years since everyone has a rectangular keyboard,” Greg Wilson explained in a virtual briefing. “With all the technology today, why do we do it that way? It really doesn’t fit anyone. “It’s a vestige of how typewriters were built.”
When designing the Flow keyboard, the Wilson brothers aimed to stay away from that traditional rectangular shape. Instead, they wanted to create a keyboard that would naturally contort based on the way your hands rest on the keyboard, not the other way around. So, they went with a 3D wavy design with contoured keys that are supposed to feel like they’re hugging your fingertips. Both the case and keys are built from scratch and are proprietary to Nuio.