[ijlx]

This reminds me of the Tarmak transitional layouts for learning Colemak. Tarmak has four intermediary layouts between QWERTY and Colemak, each changing a few (3-4) keys at a time. Tarmak #1 gets the N and E keys in the home row, for instance.

I ended up going cold turkey Colemak, but for those who are interested in learning a new layout Tarmak seems like an interesting way to make gradual progress without totally decimating your typing speed. Plus, it leads into a well-established layout instead of resulting in a bespoke layout you have to work on yourself.