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Corak
Courtesy of Google, I just discovered that a friendly editor submitted this ...
427v8
OK you've hit a pet peve of mine, helpless lefties. I actually new a guy that ...
Southpaws, use at your own peril!
By Steve Corak, Contributor
7/13/2010 7:00 AM EDT
A stove top reminds us that the appropriateness of a design is often in the eye of the beholder
When I was in first grade, I could not cut a sheet of paper to save my life. The scissors just didn’t work. This caused me a great deal of stress during art class, especially when the teacher would tell me that my work “should be neater.” I’d look around the room and see all of my friends cutting paper without the slightest problem. I, on the other hand, had to tear the paper with my fingers. I’d even try using somebody else’s scissors that seemed to work just fine, but they wouldn’t work for me.
Clearly, I was the problem and it had nothing to do with the scissors. Right? Fortunately for me, the teacher took maternity leave and a new teacher came in. She sent home a note to my mother (pinned to my shirt, no doubt) asking her to buy me a pair of “LEFTY” scissors. Even after 45 years, I can still remember the exact moment when I took those new scissors into my hand and effortlessly sliced the paper. Wow! I’ve been enamored with the notion of “appropriate” design ever since.
Steve Corak is Innovation Manager at Pioneer Hi-Bred International, A DuPont Business
By Steve Corak, Contributor
Do you see a problem in the photo below of my kitchen stove? I'll give you a hint: I'm left handed!
When I was in first grade, I could not cut a sheet of paper to save my life. The scissors just didn’t work. This caused me a great deal of stress during art class, especially when the teacher would tell me that my work “should be neater.” I’d look around the room and see all of my friends cutting paper without the slightest problem. I, on the other hand, had to tear the paper with my fingers. I’d even try using somebody else’s scissors that seemed to work just fine, but they wouldn’t work for me.
Clearly, I was the problem and it had nothing to do with the scissors. Right? Fortunately for me, the teacher took maternity leave and a new teacher came in. She sent home a note to my mother (pinned to my shirt, no doubt) asking her to buy me a pair of “LEFTY” scissors. Even after 45 years, I can still remember the exact moment when I took those new scissors into my hand and effortlessly sliced the paper. Wow! I’ve been enamored with the notion of “appropriate” design ever since.
Steve Corak is Innovation Manager at Pioneer Hi-Bred International, A DuPont Business
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Duane Benson
7/15/2010 5:26 PM EDT
Lefty or not, I think a lot of designers could learn from this piece. Do you put the control where it fits best from a circuit standpoint? Or do you place it where it will be easiest to use by a customer? The finance folks who may force a control panel decision based on price rather than on use should also take notice of this article.
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ttt3
7/16/2010 11:00 AM EDT
Perhaps you could suggest a better location for those knobs. Doesn't appear that there's room to put them at the front or back of the cooktop. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect someone who's left handed (the minority of the user population) to perhaps use their non-dominant hand to turn a simple knob. But that's just me.
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ttt3
7/24/2010 12:34 AM EDT
@IHateScreenNames - I think it's much more constructive to suggest a solution to a problem than to simply complain about it. What, exactly, do you expect the designers to do here?
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Bob Virkus
7/17/2010 4:53 PM EDT
Let me count the ways that designers make all kinds of things more difficult than they should be. Don't you hate it when you go into a hotel bathroom and you have to send time figuring out how the shower works? If you have to put the word Push on a door, your design has already failed. We can all sympathize with the plight of lefties in some manner. All designers should be required to read "The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald Norman at least one a year.
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David Ashton
7/30/2010 5:00 AM EDT
Solution - have the cooktop so you can install it with the controls on either side, and have two stick-on legends for both ways (or maybe just one to cover the default legends when the controls are on the left). Yes, you'd also have to be able to fit the knobs upside down as well, but all the above is hardly a challenge engineering-wise, or even cost-wise, considering you'd just have expanded your possible customer base by 5 or 10 %??
Not entirely my own idea I will confess. My tumble dryer came with a stick-on label you could use if you mounted it on the wall upside down with the controls at the bottom instead of on the floor with top controls. Great ides.
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427v8
8/12/2010 10:05 AM EDT
OK you've hit a pet peve of mine, helpless lefties. I actually new a guy that complained that doors suck since they are right handed when you go out them...
Scissors? I can use a right handed scissors with my left hand just fine, you just have to push the blades apart rather than pull them together.
I often used lefty scissors in grade school as we had a ton of left handed scissors and few lefties. I used them right handed.
In the US all cars are left handed, English cars are right handed.
Stove? My ancient GE stove is 'left handed' the controls are on the left. I use my left hand to press the buttons, not my right. no problem
BTW, in my view, your stove IS left handed. It allows you to pick up the pan with your dominant hand while turning off the gas with your non dominant hand.
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Corak
3/22/2011 1:35 PM EDT
Courtesy of Google, I just discovered that a friendly editor submitted this posting for me, along with some "embellishments" to the text. Regardless, I'm happy to report that I am the proud owner of a new "handedness neutral" gas stove with all of the controls positioned along the front edge. The other nice thing about the design of the new stove is that the grates make a continous surface so that pots can slide from burner to burner without tipping. Lastly, the stainless steel surface of the stove is recessed below the burners such that any boil overs are captured rather than spilling into the burner, the floor, or the counter. Great design makes all the difference in the world!
-- and I'm sorry about being somebody's "pet peeve", but it is what it is! Once upon a time, my right-handed brother broke his right hand and he was shocked by all of the difficulties that he encountered with being limited to using only his left hand. In fact, it was my brother that pointed out many of the little things where I was working around a right handed design without even realizing it. Try using a screw driver with your left hand. I couldn't believe how much easier it worked with my right hand. It's simple biomechanics......
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