Scroll Placement and Handedness

by Berahzer, Damien M.

This study explored how individuals categorized on handedness (being left or right hand dominant) reacted to having the vertical scroll bar of a web browser relocated to the left side of the screen. The relocation of the vertical scroll bar served as an alternative to the relocation of the prominent left aligned main navigation menu for most websites. Fifteen participants were recruited for the study. Each participant interacted with two versions of a web site in a modified browser to complete a set of ten short tasks. Participants completed tasks by interacting with a traditional and non-traditional vertical browser alignment. Left and right-handed participants were determined to be strikingly different in operation. Vertical scroll relocation produced some interesting results and responses.