In this post of ours, we’d be talking about the so-called “Thumb Zone” and why take it into consideration when it comes to optimizing a website or a mobile app visually.

The goal of this post is to serve You – web designers, programmers and end users.

Thumb Zone refers to the ability of one’s thumb to reach out to vital (or not so much) parts of your phone application or mobile version of your website.

Here’s an image that would help visualise what we’re talking about.

In the picture above, you see the physical capabilities of a thumb of an average left-handed and right-handed guy. Plus, in the middle, you could see a combined view.

Real-world example.

Let us review a simple real world example of how the Thumb Zone could make or break your creation, be it app or a website.

Imagine a situation where web designers and programmers had put a lot of time and effort to make a beautiful design and then the end users, who by default should be thrilled, just said:

“Man, that’s cool but how do you use it?!”

What do we learn from such a situation?

Company “X” pays company “Y” a decent amount of money. The web Designers and the programmers from company “Y” do a great design but the product is just not usable. Now, all has to be done from scratch.

What if company “Y” knew about the “Thumb Zone” (ideally, a lot more)?

Company “Y” would have saved resources – financial and time-related (because they need to re-do it again). But there’s something else, a lot more important. A whole storm of negative emotions could have been avoided if company “Y” had the relevant knowledge.

As we all know, if you hurt the feelings of a Customer there’s a good chance they “switch” you.

While on the topic of “Thumb Zone”, we are sure you’ve all seen those phones that allow you to pull the screen down so you could reach the content that’s on top without having to move your thumb all the way through. Here’s a good example of that.

But would you like your website or app to be used with that “cool” functionality in order for the user to navigate through it… most likely not.

Now, that we’ve covered the Thumb Zone topic above, what do you think of it? Feel free to let us know in the comments below.