Here’s an easy usability tweak that seems obvious to me:

Why not distinguish the left and right sides to a pair of headphones by touch not just sight? The benefit to everyday usability would be felt, quite literally, by everyone who uses them. I  assume this could be very useful for persons with a visual handicap as well.

My solution would be to put a small dot or dimple on the right side earpiece, making it easily recognizable by feeling it with your fingers. This would be far more efficient than trying to look for a tiny R or L printed on it, or holding the two up and comparing the shape, or just sticking one in and seeing if it feels right.

Now many modern headphones like the Apple Earpod have a remote and microphone on one side for smartphone use. Why not just let this serve as the indicator between left and right? First, not all headphones have a remote, but all should have a touch based indicator of left and right. Second, by placing the indicator on the earpiece itself the insertion is more efficient and convenient.

So, can we all set the headphone manufacturers of the world down and convince them to collectively implement a universal indicator?