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Comment by colanderman | Hacker News Reader

I've always wondered, why aren't USB connectors designed to be able to be inserted either way? Does having 4 contacts vs 8 really save all that much money?

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Agreed, they should just be like a firewire plug that is bidirectional (ie. not tapered at one end) with the 4 pins repeated on each side. Much better design.

FireWire plugs only fit one way, just like USB. Yet, one of FireWire's advantages is that the connector doesn't have a fully symmetrical shape, that makes it more obvious how to insert the plug. Users don't even have to look, they can feel which side is narrowest or has a dent on one side (depending on the type of FireWire plug).

http://pinouts.ru/connector/4_pin,_6_pin_or_9_pin_IEEE1394_F...

I should have made that wording clearer... by "like a firewire plug that is bidirectional (ie. not tapered)" I mean a symmetrically shaped firewire "style" plug, only with the same pins arrayed down each side... so no matter how you plug it in it's correct.

I also never understood this design decision. I can't count how many times I struggled to plug something in at the back of a PC in a poorly lit room. They should really start making this and it should become the standard.

My other wish has always been 'uni-sex' USB plugs, but I don't know if you can easily have both 'uni-sex' and invertible together.

Raskin described a plug like that in his human factors book that I read. Probably:

http://www.amazon.com/Humane-Interface-Directions-Designing-...

Yes, it is generally all about cutting costs.

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