I consider myself to be left handed. Though I think I’m more mixed handed. But alas mixed handedness gets cut out of the picture most of the time since the focus tends to be on the dominate writing hand.

I like being left handed, it means I might have a gene that makes me left handed, but they aren’t sure about that yet. I also notice quite a bit when other people around me are left handed. It makes me feel special. I’m an oddity (I’m sure most people would agree with that). Being left handed also makes me adept at using my right hand better then right handed folks can use their left hand. Some call this ambidextrous, but truly, I am not. I’m not equally dexterous on both sides of my body which is why I’m more mixed handed. I can’t throw things with my left arm and I play baseball (as well as most sports) with my right arm. I am also right footed and right eyed. There are few things that I can only do well with my left arm/hand.

What I don’t like is when people don’t consider the left handed folks when designing things.

Spurring on this rant was a recent discussion on a well known and widely read interaction design mailing list. The discussion was around mouse clicks on a web app/site. More to the point they were talking about the use of contextual menus being accessed via a “right click”. I’m sure you might be thinking this is a little nit-picky and perhaps it is. However the problem persists, people do not think out side their own means. They tend to think of what they can do and not what others do or can’t do. For crying out loud these guys design interfaces and interactions. What happens if they design something strictly for their means not considering how others may use it and someone dies?

Taking this a little further, there has been research on the effects of left handed people using right handed mice. It can cause some issues with posture. Which makes you wonder if ~10% of the worlds population is cared about by the other 90%. It seems that the 80/20 rule shouldn’t apply for handedness. But alas it does and designers, business people and right handed folks don’t see the value in accommodating the southpaws of this world.

We might be an edge case in some people’s minds but wouldn’t people with disabilities considered edge cases? It basically the same thing, people with psychical disabilities could have a hard time doing things that people without disabilities do with ease. People who are left hand dominate could have difficulties with things that are designed for the right handed world.

Equality for all? No. Not until the right handed world stops being selfish.

Well where do I start?

I guess it started back in March of 2008 when I attended An Event Apart New Orleans. Jason Santa Maria gave an excellent talk about web design or rather a talk about how current web design all looks the same in the form of blogs and content management systems. The example he used that stuck in my head was that of Wired Magazine. In their print publication they have very captivating designs but when the article is taken online it loses its design and just becomes another article. This actually inspired me in two ways. The first was to learn more about design (as my background is in development) and the other was to create a website that was essentially what Wired was to print. With my lack of design skills and time, I filed it away almost to the point of being forgotten. Seeing as how 2008 was a very busy year for me it should come as no surprise.

In late October of 2008, after I had gotten settled here in Denver, I wanted to build a website. I played around with a few ideas and then remembered that 24ways would be starting up soon. 24ways is an awesome website run by Drew McLellan and Brian Suda that only publishes articles during advent. This gave me the idea to create a website that had a restricted publishing schedule.

In the end I settled on building a site that published articles in a very set fashion, highlighting various parts of website development each with a unique design reflecting the content. 13 articles a year once a month with a yearly review.

Well… after much work, it happened. The first article of 13things is now published.

You. Who are you? Do you know how you are perceived by others? Do I know you? Do other people know you?

A year or so ago I was reading something about making good impressions with resumes. While it was aimed at fresh college graduates it did have some good pointers for anyone who wants to be a professional. The one point that that still sticks in my mind was their comments about email addresses. They suggested getting a email address based on your name rather then partyperson247@example.com.

Hi. I’m the marketing Director for a Fortune 500 company. IM me at “shavedkitty2008” – Ryan Brunsvold

While that is an extreme example of this I still know quite a few professionals that use screen names and email addresses that aren’t of the professional nature you want to be known for. Now don’t get me wrong I’ve had my share of strange screen names and email addresses in the past, but I realized that if I want to be taken seriously then I need to act accordingly. Nearly all my screen names/email/accounts are some variation on Andrew Jaswa. This not only makes it easy for me to remember but it also helps others know who I am. By making my account names some variation on my real name I’ve opened the door for more communication, both good and bad. People now know that idiot posting is me and not some teen age boy with nothing better to do.

Numbers in your user name might be an easy way to get that “loverboy” account name, but it doesn’t look professional. I blame AOL for this. If you have a common name, such as “John Smith”, I would try everything possible to get something that is close to it. User you middle name if you have to.

If you use some fleeting interest you had at the time in your screen name, you have to realize that you might not like that thing later and change your screen name. Who likes changing established screen names? Not I.

If you are a public figure or have professional aspirations then you need to have a good public face and the start of that is to have a good name you are known by online. Make your online identity universal and always relevant to you. But please, please don’t use “shavedkitty2008” (Ryan already has dibs on it).