Is it easier to move the mouse from right to left or vice versa?

Question

In an ergonomic sense, is it easier to move the mouse from left to right or right to left?

The reason I'm asking is to find out which side to place two modals, the contents of modal A will be dragged to modal B.

So, should modal A be placed to the left or right of modal B, in regards to the radial and ulnar deviation of the users' wrist?

I don't think ergonomics would come into play here A mouse can be moved in any direction without hampering movement. The parameter that makes more sense is source-destination. Depending upon the logic of what the two modals carry, keep the source modal on the left and the destination modal on the right — Shreyas Tripathy, Commented Nov 13, 2018 at 9:56
@ShreyasTripathy It's less about the mouse and more about which of the two movements are more natural (and less strain) for the wrist. I also didn't want to put too much focus on my context because I think this question can be useful for many contexts. Nonetheless, it's a good point you make about the modals. — RobbyReindeer, Commented Nov 13, 2018 at 10:28
I'm with @ShreyasTripathy. At least here in Western culture, we think of forward motions as left to right. So it seems more natural for the source to be on the left and the destination to be on the right. That's a bigger factor than the user's small wrist motions. — Ken Mohnkern, Commented Nov 13, 2018 at 13:50

colmcq · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-13 09:58:17Z

1

Depends on the handedness of the user.

70-90% are dominant right handed so you could default the interaction to that.

I'd also allow users to set up the handedness of the interaction "allow drag AB / BA"

I'd also set up a couple session to see whether a default interaction works better or worse for different handedness

answered Nov 13, 2018 at 9:58

colmcq

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