Effect of Cursor Orientation on Left- and Right-Hand Mouse Control

Abstract

Many factors, such as cursor orientation, cursor shape, and direction of movement have previously been found to impact human performance in graphical user interfaces. However, the majority of, if not all, previous research has focused on right-hand mouse control of cursors. The current study examined both left and right hand mouse control of cursor with a 2 (response hand; left vs. right) x 3 (cursor type; left-oriented arrow, right-oriented arrow, and neutral-orientated crosshairs) x 8 (target location) within-subjects design. The purpose was to examine the effects of response hand and cursor orientation on performance of moving cursors into different target locations. Results showed that there was a difference in the three cursor types for right handed individuals, as well as in left- and right-hand mouse control for right-handed, left-handed, and ambidextrous individuals. Implications for interface design and future research are discussed.