More on this later, but just a quick note; anyone else ever think about this?

The dexterity of a left handed person is obviously in their left hand (speaking artistically, if you draw with your right hand and call yourself left handed just because you write with your left hand – you’re a hack and it doesn’t count). Of course I prefer to use a Wacom tablet, but don’t always have one readily available to use and end up using the mouse for most things.

I was recently doodling in photoshop for the hell of it and drawing with brushes and the pen tool it was utterly frustrating. For how much I use the mouse with my right hand and the amount of fine and precise movements I’ve trained myself to be able to do (creating logos, bezier curves, etc..) I still cannot for the life of me translate what I see in my head freehanded via the mouse and my right hand to the screen.

Another kick to the gut is how utterly uncomfortable I feel when I use the mouse with my left hand. I know very few people (left handed) who have made this transition, but I do know of one (Josh – a graphic designer I went to school with) that had his personal setup to be a left handed mouse. I’ve often thought about transitioning to my left hand and expanding my abilities by setting up at least one of my 3 work stations to be left handed only. The one deciding factor that keeps me away from it is: Keyboard shortcuts; everything comes default for right handed users (most quick commands are on the left hand side of the keyboard; if you had to let go of the mouse, they would not be considered shortcuts). Also, the less developed programs and apps (which are often most helpful) don’t always have the ability to customize the commands (re-assign them).

So in the end all of the right handed developers and designers get the last laugh. Laugh it up chuckles, we’ll have our day in the sun.. Ohhh yes, one day..