Friday, August 17, 2018

accessibility - Left-handed persons and usability


I have never seen any UI that depends on what hand a person prefers. I have never seen any options or profile settings for left-handled persons. Maybe it is a strange question, but I have to ask it. Is it common to skip these users? Maybe it is not so important for left-handed persons. In my opinion, I would like when some things (often used) are placed from the right hand (menu, card, shortcuts)



Answer



Only physical devices should be affected by whether the person using them is right handed or left handed, for example mice.



A touch screen is one area where you might want to consider such things, as you have considerations of the person's hand physically blocking the view.


When relating to regular site and applications, the right (pun intended) question to ask is what is the user's preference, OR take into consideration the orientation of the person's native language.


For example, most languages are written left to right, hence your UI should take into account that the user will view the elements on the screen in that order (and top to bottom).


If you do allow customizations, it still doesn't depend on whether the person uses their right or left hand. For example, a friend of mine uses Windows' task bar (where the "start" , quick launch and minimized applications are) docked left, instead of the regular bottom.


It makes more sense to ask what the user's preference is, i.e. do you prefer the viewing pane on the right or on the left, rather than asking them about being left or right handed and making UI assumptions based on that.


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