Design integrity must also recognize and consider that users and operators, are both left and right handed. Whilst using the appliance, in order to adequately carry out all of the functions demanding dexterity, it is essential for the working area to be placed in front of the dominant hand.
If an appliance, such as a domestic sewing machine, is to be 'user-friendly' for both the left and right handed operator, its bias within the design, naturally has to face off to both the left and the right, in order to place the working area in a 'user-friendly' manner for the preferred hand.
Currently, the bias of the domestic sewing machine faces off to the left and therefore favours the left-handed operator (8-10% of users). To cater for all sewers (100% of the market), it is imperative to have a choice of configurations.
Until this is achieved, manufacturers inadvertently, will continue to deprive the right- handed operator of a 'user-friendly' design. Of course users can 'adapt'; of course sewers can make do, but design integrity for all consumers, demands an appliance without favour.
The oversight that produced the ergonomic anomaly (the placing of the hand-crank to the right), within the current design of the domestic sewing machine, has more than outlived its 'used by date' and producers of machines, more than ever, need to recognize the benefit of catering for both left and right-handed users.
The first into the marketplace with this exclusive innovation can change the dynamics of the industry for years to come and reap the appropriate rewards. Manufacturers therefore, of domestic machines world-wide, have a unique and exciting opportunity to enter the market with a configuration that will appeal to all new right-handed sewers, as well as catering for millions of existing users who find the present design extremely awkward.
This change of configuration is a marketing breakthrough, as it means users now have a choice of either, a right, or left-handed sewing machine. This choice provides a manufacturer with a compelling differentiation in the market. Marketers and sales people therefore, will be able to offer future sewers a choice of designs that would suit their dominant hand.