Forums

XXII.6 November - December 2015
Page: 66
Digital Citation

Why widget design is giving us Fitts


Authors:
Randolph Bias, Doug Gillan

Someone once said, "Gravity—it's not just a good idea, it's the law." In the art-and-science world of user interface (UI) design, the first law we consider—almost the only "law" that gets invoked in our still-too-subjective practice—is Fitts's Law: The time to acquire a physical target is a function of the size of that target and its distance. Why would a forum on evaluation and usability devote space to Fitts's Law? In the first place, much of usability is concerned with selecting—both cognitively and physically—the correct item from a screenful of icons, links, menu items, and other virtual objects. In…




You must be a member of SIGCHI, a subscriber to ACM's Digital Library, or an interactions subscriber to read the full text of this article.

GET ACCESS

Join ACM SIGCHI

In addition to all of the professional benefits of being a SIGCHI member, members get full access to interactions online content and receive the print version of the magazine bimonthly.


Subscribe to the ACM Digital Library

Get access to all interactions content online and the entire archive of ACM publications dating back to 1954. (Please check with your institution to see if it already has a subscription.)


Subscribe to interactions

Get full access to interactions online content and receive the print version of the magazine bimonthly.