[Panel-devel] Left Handed

[Fred Schaettgen]

On Monday, 5. September 2005 16:16, you wrote:
> > Being a converted ex-lefty and no usability expert I am probably just
> > unable to comprehend the troubles of heavily left handed people.
>
> I understand that there is evidence that forcing left-handed people to be
> right handed gives rise to other issues such as stuttering and other
> psychological effects (more and less serious to a greater and lesser
> degree)
Maybe it depends on the kind of force that is applied. My mother did things 
like painting my right hand with color and have me decorate Christmas cards 
for instance. Didn't work with the left hand, so I was looking pretty 
puzzled, but eventually I found out about the trick to use the other hand.
She herself on the other hand was beaten badly in school and at home until she 
used the right hand, but we are both fine. Maybe maybe we were just lucky.
But certainly won't do the same once I have children. They will use computers 
and putting the mouse to the left is more conveniant because of that useless 
numpad on the right ;)
...
> > It's the same for scissors, knifes and what else.
>
> As the web site explains, it's slightly more complicated than that.  For a
> computer desktop try and imagine that the "K" is the bottom right hand
> corner and observe the pressure on your right hand wrist and elbow - you
> have to adjust your whole body position to make it comfortable

Sorry, I can't follow you here. First, I do hold the mouse in my left hand 
most of the time and the K-Menu is on the left. Yet it doesn't feel any 
better if I move it to the right. But that's just me.
But besides that - moving the mouse towards the K-Menu is not all you do. You 
have to move it back to your application eventually. You can't really avoid 
movement in one direction.

...
> > It's the same for most parts of a GUI. What goes left and what goes right
> > is just a convention.
>
> not so, it's a convention based on right handedness - it's easier to
> explain on a graphics tablet - see bugs.kde.org circa 2002 - moreover I
> have to adopt a totally different body position - the inward sweep (CW for
> you CCW for me) is the natural and easier movement

Are you talking about handwriting on paper here? Where does the GUI force you 
to adopt different body positions? You can't smear the ink when using a 
mouse. You move it to a target position - sometimes to the left, sometimes to 
the right - and click. 
The only difference I see is that the mouse crashes more often into the left 
screen border, because of the left alignment of most GUI elements. So you 
have to lift the mouse to reposition it towards the right more often than to 
the left. Is it easier for you to lift the mouse and move it left instead? Or 
is it anything else?

> > I can't think of a reason why left handed people
> > should have a different idea of the order of the OK/Cancel button. You
> > have to press either one in no particular order and you can do it with
> > the left hand if you prefer.
>
> apologies, I think this one arose because I didn't explain myself very well
> in the first place - my post to be moderated covers this - I was trying to
> refer to the close tabs/open tabs buttons on konqueror rather than
> OK/Cancel

This doesn't make it any more clear for me. Close Tab is right, New Tab is 
left. Why would left-handed people prefer "New Tab" on the right? If you'd be 
the only man on earth, then how would you decide which buttons belongs where?

The only motivation I know at the moment for putting the close button to the 
right is that all other close buttons are on the right too, as Thomas 
mentioned already. It doesn't seem to be motivated by handedness.
Other systems have it the other way round and they are used by many happy 
right handers.  

...
> see left-handed rulers (especially technical drawing sets) and the redesign
> of irons and electric kettles.  Unless you are as old as me you might not
> remember how (looking from above) the lead for an iron used to emerge from
> the side of the handle pointing right ("away" for a right-handed user)

I did in no way question the use of left handed (or neutral) devices. We have 
to hold it with your preferred hand after all. That's why there are left 
handed or symmetrical mice and that's why I own one. 
But beyond that I don't see further problems with the GUI. I'm not saying they 
don't exist, I just don't see them. This topic isn't discussed on the website 
you mentioned, or is it?

So far I know that you would like to swap the "new tab" and "close tab" 
buttons. But that's not all for sure. What about back and forward? Or zoom 
in/zoom out? 
I guess you've tried the --reverse option in the meantime and I'm quite sure 
that it's not exactly what you want. It would align latin text left and 
everything else right. Not really usable I guess ;) But how would a left 
handed layout look like then?

...
> > So it becomes a
> > self-fulfilling prophecy that it's better for lefties to swap everything.
>
> While I am sure there was no intention, I think the phrase self-fulfilling
> has the potential for being inflammatory, being left-handed is not a fad

I'm sorry, no offence intended :-S Let's skip this while I trying to figure 
out how to say what I wanted to say in english :)

Fred

-- 
Fred Schaettgen
kde.sch at ttgen.net