According to an Owl labs study, almost 70% of full-time workers in the US are working remotely, however only 20 - 25% of companies pay or split the cost of office equipment. According to a logitech study, employees are 50% more productive and comfortable when using an external mouse, as opposed to a track pad.

Many jobs nowadays require a computer and by extension a mouse, sadly most ergonomic mice are designed for specific hands (left or right hand) which makes them ineffective in the event of disability whether permanent, temporary or situational.

Every year, about 5% of working Americans experience a short-term disability, which is about 9 million people because according to the bureau of labour statistics which states about 167.5 million Americans were employed in 2020 after a 3 million reduction from 2019.

‍According to a research survey I carried out, 60.8% of respondents reported that in the past week, there had been times they needed to use their dominant  hands but couldn't because it was occupied. Interestingly, only about 1% of the population is ambidextrous but this amounts to a whopping 70 million people.

‍With recent covid restrictions, many families need to share a computer and thanks to the beauty of genetics, members of the same family do not always have the same dominant hand.

Because all of this information is not mutually exclusive, it is safe to assume that any given point in time, about 8 million people have an ergonomic mouse they cannot use

I conducted a survey to gather some preliminary insights and had 51 respondents, while I understand that 51 respondents is not an accurate representation of the entire population, here are my findings.

​58.8% of participants indicated that they use an external mouse and the same percentage indicated usage of at least once a week. 82.4% of all participants were right handed and 11.8% ambidextrous. However, 60.8% of all participants stated that at some point in the past week, they needed to use their mouse but had their dominant hand occupied. 80.4% of participants stated they used a regular mouse and 7.8% stated they used an ergonomic mouse or a gaming mouse as it is commonly called.

When asked what brand of mouse they own and use, the most common responses were HP, Logitech, and off-brand​These findings paved the way for user interviews which revealed  a few key insights like; cost was a huge factor when considering a mouse, and most ergonomic mice tend to be expensive.  Another recurring theme was the perception that a lot of these mice were not very stylish

To provide a better picture of this challenge, I conducted an analysis on 10 of the top rated ergonomic mice according techjury.net . The list had a mix of mice from various brands and every mouse had a different selling point. Of all 10, only 1 had the left hand as the preferred dominant hand, only 1 accounted for smooth ambidextrous use and only 1 could be modified to  accommodate changing dominant hands.

[UPDATE]: As at 2023, a study conducted by rtings.com revealed that of 283 ergonomic mice studied, only 43 were left hand friendly and only 1 had a left hand version available. You can view the full analysis here

Although this project was quite interesting to work on, it is far from done yet. It is currently on hold because I cannot afford to continue with research at the moment. To proffer a solution, I would like to understand and experiment with the other physical attributes of the mice like weight, effective speed, and material analysis to properly if ergonomic mice are as beneficial as they appear to be and the possibility of creating an affordable ambidextrous mouse. ​During the course of this project, I learned quite a bit and I hope to continue this project someday