Left Out “Lefties” in Design

Abstract

Many minority groups such as the handicapped, blind and hard-of-hearing pose special consumer design problems. One minority which has received minimal attention in the United States is the 22 million lefthanders. These people have either had to adapt or suffer in silence. Problems peculiar to left-handers need not occur as they are correctable through proper design. There is little human factors data, however, to provide guidance for proper design. A task analysis approach, based on force utilization, overcomes many of these obstacles by considering in detail the way tasks are performed. In a systems approach such as this, the required actions and the ways they can be performed by both the righty and lefty are defined. The right- and left-handed modes can be compared and contrasted and recommendations made for (1) no product modification (2) modification to make the product left- and right-hand compatible, or (3) total redesign. While the approach has been applied only to consumer products, it has the potential for extention to more complex situations.