RTL language users expect that reading will be done in RTL, not that everything will be done RTL. Scissors are the way they are because most people have stronge

RTL language users expect that reading will be done in RTL, not that everything will be done RTL. Scissors are the way they are because most people have stronger right hands than left hands, and that applies regardless of native or preferred language. The cursor keys are likely on the right for the same reason. Website navigation is presumably derived from reading - if you generally read RTL, then your eyes will start at the top right of the screen/page and scan to the left. Where it gets interesting is on small touch screens like phones. Perhaps we ought to optimize that for single-hand use and put the hamburger menu icon on the right side to make it easier to reach with your thumb when in your right hand, regardless of language orientation. In any case, my experience is that in a lot of RTL software[0] navigation is flipped, and the "previous/next page" arrows are reversed as well. But in meatspace this is less practical so at least in Israel, the play/forward/rewind buttons on old tape recorders (for example) will be with a LTR orientation. I suspect that if Israel was manufacturing their own music players a few decades ago things might look different today. Now imagine you work at Spotify and you need to decide how to display the play/skip/previous controls in RTL. Do you mimic normal RTL forward/back and reverse the controls or go for skeumorphism and use the same controls your users already know? [0] Locally made software such as yad2.co.il is more likely to do this because it's RTL-first. Google doesn't flip their pagination, possibly because they use the 'o's in their logo to link to to page numbers and they don't translate or reverse their logo. Bing does reverse the pagination. DDG sidesteps the problem by having a "Load more" button.