Human performance using computer input devices in the preferred and non-preferred hands

  • Authors:

  • Paul Kabbash;I. Scott MacKenzie;William Buxton

  • Affiliations:

  • Computer Systems Research Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont. Canada M5S 1A4;Dept. of Computing & Information Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ont., Canada N1G 2W1;University of Toronto & Xerox PARC, c/o Computer Systems Research Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont. Canada M5S 1A4

  • Venue:
  • CHI '93 Proceedings of the INTERACT '93 and CHI '93 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
  • Year:
  • 1993

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Abstract

Subjects' performance was compared in pointing and dragging tasks using the preferred and non-preferred hands. Tasks were tested using three different input devices: a mouse, a trackball, and a tablet-with-stylus. The trackball had the least degradation across hands in performing the tasks, however it remained inferior to both the mouse and stylus. For small distances and small targets, the preferred hand was superior. However, for larger targets and larger distances, both hands performed about the same. The experiment shows that the non-preferred hand is more than a poor approximation of the preferred hand. The hands are complementary, each having its own strength and weakness. One design implication is that the non-preferred hand is well suited for tasks that do not require precise action, such as scrolling.