Ronald Raygun :
Mike Barnes wrote:

Ronald Raygun :
Mike Barnes wrote:

Ian Jackson :

I'm asking this because my wife and I both prefer the taps to turn the
opposite way to the 'standard', which is, when off, with the handles
jutting forwards, across the sink bowl. We much prefer the handles to
be parked folded pointing outwards (-o and o-).

Same here. I don't understand the "standard" - it makes no sense to me,
on any level.

Doesn't it? Then what would?

What the OP said makes sense and is exactly what I did in our downstairs
loo.

Of course you may feel that they ought to operate in the same way as
ordinary taps (clockwise off for both hot and cold),
[...]

No, I don't.

It makes sense to me to have the lever aligned with the flow when "on",
and across the direction of flow when "off". Many lever valves work that
way, and for good reason.

That makes sense, I agree, but more so for valves used only rarely, like
gas stopcocks, or connector arrangements for washing machines etc. For
valves operated frequently, ergonomic considerations may override this
principle.

I think I've misunderstood the description of the OP's setup, because
my memory is tainted with the tap arrangement I used to have once.

On mine, the axis of rotation of the knobs was horizontal (and indeed the
two knobs were co-axial). Taking the cold (right hand) knob, you would
rotate it clockwise for on, which meant pushing the top side of the knob
away from you. In other words, the lever would be horizontal facing towards
you for off, and would be vertical for fully on, though conceivably you
could pull the knob off the valve stem and put it back on 90 degrees out,
so that the lever would be vertical for off and horizontal pointing away
from you for on.

1000 words...

http://thedowerhouse.com/pics/taps.jpg

As fitted the levers pointed towards the user when off.

--
Mike Barnes