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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Left Handed
From:       Fred Schaettgen <kde.sch () ttgen ! net>
Date:       2005-09-05 23:47:26
Message-ID: 200509060147.28193.kde.sch () ttgen ! net
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On Monday, 5. September 2005 23:29, you wrote:
...
> > 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?
>
> left handers work/think right to left  - moving ones hand away from the
> body rather than toward it - as I mentioned in my original post - the
> usability of KDE has improved so much that my concentration lapses and I
> think "normally" and close a tab by mistake rather than open it.

Maybe we remember the location of a button not in terms of left or right but 
"on the skilled|dominant|whatever side or not". You are forced to adopt the 
left-to-right oriented thinking and when you become unconcentrated you switch 
sides. Or maybe it happens because you switch between tasks which force you 
to think left to right (reading) and other tasks where you are free to think 
right to left (drawing maybe - you mentioned a graphics tablet). 
If this pretty far fetched theory is true, then flipping those two buttons 
won't change a thing. The real solution would be to find a way to keep you 
permanently unconcentrated ;)

...
> It's just a thought I had that because of the development model it might be
> possible to consider a LH GUI
>
> > 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?
>
> The majority of the world still doesn't understand choice in software and
> so they're all putting up with stuff and that the gui is right-handed is
> probably well down the list - they have got a very nearly left-handed
> keyboard - keypad on left

It's probably not just down the list - not that simple. If it was possible to 
come up with a setup that is clearly better for left handed users in 
countries with left-to-right script, then someone would have taken care of it 
for sure. I speculate that there are more left handed KDE users than KDE 
users in countries with right-to-left script.
But to me it looks far from obvious what a LH KDE setup should look like. The 
improvements over a RH setup are rather subtile for most people, while on the 
other hand we are very much used to a certain setup. And there is the 
unchangeable invariant of left-to-right text. So simply opening submenus to 
the left for instance might be much less helpful as it could be in an ideal 
left handed world where people would actually read from right to left.

...
> I'm thinking about that - I would be pleased to try and organise the
> research (for example perhaps this left-handed website might be prepared to
> raise the idea as a topic)
> However I can't do the coding - so if I cannot garner interest I'm just
> boring you all with my posts.
> It also might be excessively difficult to achieve as an option, again I
> have no idea

As long as it's just about things that you can configure already - like moving 
the k-menu - it will certainly be possible to integrate this as an option 
into the initial kpersonalizer wizard.
Once you are sure that this setup is really better for most left handed users 
(ask them), then you can approach developers with your suggestions on an 
adequate list or as a wish in the KDE bug tracker.
Flipping buttons will be a lot harder and you can't try it easily. Given that 
you find enough supporters of your suggestions it *might* be possible to 
extend the mechanism that is used for RTL-countries to flip only what is 
needed for a left handed setup. This would already need support in most 
applications, but maybe it would be simple enough. 
It will be close to impossible to get things implemented that go beyond that. 
You would have to approach each developer individually and try to convince 
him why your suggestion is important. Statistics suggest that 9 out of 10 
attempts will fail because the developer is right handed and doesn't care ;)


> to start with:
>
> K on the right, then for the menu: icons on the right, arrows pointing
> inward if there are options

So far it doesn't sound completely impossible. Maybe you can organize a poll 
among left handed users on the plasma forum, section "Desktop Usability":
http://kde-artists.org/main/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,48/expv,0/board,5.0
It would affect not only plasma, but it doesn't seem to too off topic for me.

regards
Fred 

-- 
Fred Schaettgen
kde.sch@ttgen.net
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