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> So the answer from this veteran UX designer would be: Use whichever placement your users are going to be the most familiar with, but whichever you choose, be

> So the answer from this veteran UX designer would be: Use whichever placement your users are going to be the most familiar with, but whichever you choose, be 100% consistent with the choice you make. What are your thoughts on how smartphones might impact this left vs. right debate? The button on the right is accessible without using just one hand (tapping with thumb while holding in palm), but I need two hands to tap the button on the left. But I'm left-handed. Do right-handed people hold their smartphone in their left hand? It just occurred to me that my minority handedness might be why I've always found large smartphones hard to use.

gsich 8y ago
I don't know if handedness does has much influence to such clumsy devices like smartphones. It's not comparable to writing text by hand, where much greater precision is required.
jaysonelliot 8y ago
In mobile design, I generally stay with the same convention of placing positive actions on the right. The "dominant hand" argument isn't relevant, since your thumb usually rests on the left side of the screen if you're right-handed, but the "forward motion" rationale still makes sense. It will be interesting to see what conventions from Windows-Icons-Menus-Pointer (WIMP) interfaces still exist on mobile in ten years, when desktop UIs are mostly history. We still type on QWERTY keyboards, even though the original rationale is long gone; musicians still make albums about an hour long even though they don't have to fit on two sides of a vinyl record anymore; we still have 60 minutes in an hour even though the ancient Babylonians' base 60 counting system has been gone for millennia. I wonder how many more generations will continue to debate whether "cancel" should go on the left or the right?
lozf 8y ago
I'm right-handed, but for decades have used the phone in my left hand -- I found this to be useful at an early job that often required taking notes whilst on the phone, so I optimised behaviour for that and the habit stuck. When early cellphones came along I had no trouble using my left hand only when most "right-ies" I know used them with the right hand. Since smartphones became popular I still phone with my left hand primarily, though I have become more ambidextrous with it, and I've noticed that others seem to switch hands more too.
earenndil 8y ago
I alternate; sometimes left, sometimes right.

gsich 8y ago

I don't know if handedness does has much influence to such clumsy devices like smartphones. It's not comparable to writing text by hand, where much greater precision is required.

jaysonelliot 8y ago

In mobile design, I generally stay with the same convention of placing positive actions on the right. The "dominant hand" argument isn't relevant, since your thumb usually rests on the left side of the screen if you're right-handed, but the "forward motion" rationale still makes sense. It will be interesting to see what conventions from Windows-Icons-Menus-Pointer (WIMP) interfaces still exist on mobile in ten years, when desktop UIs are mostly history. We still type on QWERTY keyboards, even though the original rationale is long gone; musicians still make albums about an hour long even though they don't have to fit on two sides of a vinyl record anymore; we still have 60 minutes in an hour even though the ancient Babylonians' base 60 counting system has been gone for millennia. I wonder how many more generations will continue to debate whether "cancel" should go on the left or the right?

lozf 8y ago

I'm right-handed, but for decades have used the phone in my left hand -- I found this to be useful at an early job that often required taking notes whilst on the phone, so I optimised behaviour for that and the habit stuck. When early cellphones came along I had no trouble using my left hand only when most "right-ies" I know used them with the right hand. Since smartphones became popular I still phone with my left hand primarily, though I have become more ambidextrous with it, and I've noticed that others seem to switch hands more too.

earenndil 8y ago

I alternate; sometimes left, sometimes right.