Lead:

According to the way of thinking of ordinary people, then the style of clothes, whether it is men's or women's, should be the same for the left or right buttons of the clothing. Curiously, however, the standards applied to women are the opposite of those for men.

It is not surprising that garment manufacturers adopt uniform standards for the different functional needs of different buying groups. Curiously, the standards for women are the opposite of those for men. It's another thing if standards are made entirely casually. But men's standards are obviously also suitable for women. After all, more than 90% of the world's population (both men and women) is right-handed, and it's much easier to button from the right side with your right hand. So, why is the women's clasp on the left?

To understand this, we must first understand history.

In this case, it seems that history really has the final say. When buttons were first introduced in the 17th century, buttons were fastened only to the coats of the wealthy. According to the custom of the time, men dressed themselves, while women were helped by servants. The buttons on the women's blouses were nailed to the left, which greatly facilitated the servants (mostly right-handed) who served the mistresses. Men's shirts are buttoned on the right side, not only because most men wear their own clothes, but also because the sword that hangs from the left waist with their right hand makes it difficult to get caught in the shirt.

Now there are still servants waiting for the dressed ladies and I am afraid that there are very few left, why is the women's clothing button still on the left?

The reason behind this is that once industry norms are established, they are very difficult to change. Since all women's shirts are buttoned on the left, it would be a big risk for any garment manufacturer to provide women's shirts with buttons on the right. After all, ladies have long been accustomed to buttoning from the left, and once the buttons are switched to the right, they have to develop new habits and use new techniques. In addition to the practical difficulties at this point, some women may also find it embarrassing to wear a shirt with a button on the right side in public, because people who see it will think that she is wearing a men's shirt.

In the early years of Microsoft's development of office software, such a thing also happened.

When they conducted user interviews, they found that many users complained about Microsoft's Wo

There are too many functions, many of which are rarely used, and it is too complicated to use. So, according to the user's feedback, Microsoft's technical staff redeveloped a new product - Microsoft W

ite。 W

ite is simple to use, it only retains Wo

d A few useful functions.

Microsoft thought that in this way, user satisfaction would be greatly improved. However, the truth was not what the technicians expected. Once again, market research shows that users think W

Ite is rubbish and not a product they need at all. Soon, W

ITE disappeared from the market and was quickly forgotten.

Microsoft's mistake is actually that the technical staff only thinks about simplicity and practicality, and does not consider the marginal cost of users to replace different products.

In most cases, users will only use Wo

d 20% of the functionality of the software. However, if you choose a W that only has 20% of its commonly used functions because 80% of the other functions are not commonly used

ite, once the user needs to use a function that is not commonly used one day, it must be re-installed with a Wo

d。 For users, the marginal cost of replacing a product is very large, and it is not only necessary to find the right software, download and install it, but also to relearn how to use it.

So the vast majority of users would rather buy a Wo with many unnecessary features

d, and don't want to choose a concise W

ite。 Because when it is necessary to use those functions that are not commonly used, it is really worth the loss for users to pay many marginal costs such as time, energy, and money.

For products with large marginal costs, once we accept them, we will not easily change them, we are used to them. However, for those products with low marginal cost, we don't have such good patience.

For example, the cost of replacing the website only requires a few words to enter into the search engine. If you find a website that is complicated to use, you will easily abandon it. Software, a product with a large replacement cost, is, of course, the best to be large and complete. Even if there are a lot of Wo that don't need a function

d, we also want to be able to do it once and for all, and never need to spend more money to replace and learn.

For a low-cost replacement product like a website, the more concise the better, and it is best to find the content you need at a glance. Those sites that are the clearest and have the lowest learning cost, even if they aren't the most feature-rich, will appeal to us the most. This is the same economic principle as the industry habit of nailing buttons.