reggie@pdn.paradyne.com (George W. Leach) (08/01/90)
How universal is the right-hand rule for controls and displays?
By universal, I mean on an international scope.
For those not familiar with the right-hand rule, it is that
increasing or positive is always to the right, up or in a clockwise
direction, eg. tightening screws, increasing temperature on a thermometer,
increasing decibel readings on a meter, etc.....
Thanks,
George
George W. Leach AT&T Paradyne
reggie@paradyne.com Mail stop LG-133
Phone: 1-813-530-2376 P.O. Box 2826
FAX: 1-813-530-8224 Largo, FL 34649-2826 USAmanne@hubcap.clemson.edu (Vijay Chachra) (08/02/90)
In article <1990Jul31.193057.4434@pdn.paradyne.com>, reggie@pdn.paradyne.com (George W. Leach) writes: > > > > How universal is the right-hand rule for controls and displays? > By universal, I mean on an international scope. > > > For those not familiar with the right-hand rule, it is that > increasing or positive is always to the right, up or in a clockwise > direction, eg. tightening screws, increasing temperature on a thermometer, > increasing decibel readings on a meter, etc..... > > > Thanks, > > George > This is definitely an intriguing issue and is worth investigating with subjects from different parts of the world. An informal discussion in my Human Factors Engineering class resulted in mixed preferences. The reasons for not accepting the rule universally could be as follows: a. It depends on the application. b. It depends on whether the controls are to be operated by both hands or one hand. c. There is a definite difference in preference between left-handed and right-handed persons. Note: Would like to hear comments from fellow netters. Vijay Chachra (Off) 803-656-4785 Department of Industrial Engineering (Res) 803-654-0206 Clemson University Clemson, S.C. 29634
dak1@cbnewsi.att.com (darren.a.kall) (08/02/90)
In article <9967@hubcap.clemson.edu>, manne@hubcap.clemson.edu (Vijay Chachra) writes: > > subjects from different parts of the world. An informal discussion in my > Human Factors Engineering class resulted in mixed preferences. The > reasons for not accepting the rule universally could be as follows: > > a. It depends on the application. > b. It depends on whether the controls are to be operated by both hands > or one hand. > c. There is a definite difference in preference between left-handed and > right-handed persons. > > Note: Would like to hear comments from fellow netters. A non-intuitive addition that I ran into is a person's cognitive expectation for performance and linguistic expression being different. I would like to see it tested if it hasn't been already to evaluate its strength and importance.I will try to clarify with an example and a poor drawing. decrease . . . . . . . increase ^ Say you have a slide control with two ends, decrease and increase (or negative and positive, less and more, off or on, etc) and the user's task is to increase the quantity of some value. The users have an expectation that the physical action of moving the slide to the right will increase the quantity. However I have noticed several users comment that the two ends seemed reversed. They wanted it to read "increase and decrease, not decrease and increase" especially in the instructions. In speach and text people usually put the positive or greater value first, (increase and decrease, positive and negative, more or less, on or off, etc.) . So there is a contradition between expectation when reading and performing; users want it two ways. This proved problematic only for users who took instructions literally. They read tht the control increased or decreased some value and then were confused when the slide was labelled in the reverse order.
jim@se-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM (Jim Ruehlin, Cognitologist domesticus) (08/03/90)
In article <9967@hubcap.clemson.edu> manne@hubcap.clemson.edu (Vijay Chachra) writes: > >This is definitely an intriguing issue and is worth investigating with >subjects from different parts of the world. An informal discussion in my >Human Factors Engineering class resulted in mixed preferences. The >reasons for not accepting the rule universally could be as follows: > >a. It depends on the application. >b. It depends on whether the controls are to be operated by both hands > or one hand. >c. There is a definite difference in preference between left-handed and > right-handed persons. This may be one of those things that are best left to "standards". If the "standard" way of looking at things is the right hand rule, keep it that way. GUI thermometers should grow from left to right, etc. As long as people get used to that kind of thing, using two hands should still result in a right-wise motion, since that's whats "usually" done. It may be too difficult to determine whether a right hand or left handed person is using a device, so the right hand rule would still be best. Even if you could tell, it would seem to me that the left handed person,living in a right handed world, would be used to turning/viewing things via the right hand rule. - Jim Ruehlin
gilbert@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Gilbert Cockton) (08/06/90)
I would think this an area where different populations have different models. I don't know of any major study on the meanings of clockwise and counterclockwise. If the user population is known, their beliefs should be investigated and used to make the final decision. Possible analogies are: steering wheel: clockwise => turn to right! hi-fi/tv volume: clockwise (right) => louder water taps (faucets): varies in GB, ?std in USA. most taps on wash basins (IMHE) are turned clockwise to turn them off. I've encountered stop-cocks (for mains supply) on water pipes which are clockwise to open. It all depends on the thread in the tap. Ideally, this should be (user-)tailorable with feedback which lets users know immediately what is happening. If there are standards, users or oprganisations can decide whether to stick to them. If feedback is good enough (e.g. many word processor rulers), standard rules are not needed. Users wont need to remember any rules (isn't that what GUIs are about?)