Now this is smart. User-friendly smart. Just wicked smart. David Benton uses the principles of Fitts’ Law to increase the clickability of links. It’s such a simple and elegant solution it’s amazing no one thought of this before.
Go read the article, but the basis is that by increasing the target area of a link, you’re increasing the user’s ability to click on it. The way Fitts’ comes into this is that you’re decreasing the distance between the mouse and the link, and providing a greater stopping area.
Nice, very very nice.
Now Fitts’ Law is a model of human behavior developed in 1954. The model is based on time and distance. It enables the prediction of human movement and human motion based on rapid, aimed movement, not drawing or writing.
Now how in the hell does this apply to the web? Easy. We know that the user uses the mouse. By making it easier for the user to complete a task with his mouse (clicking a link) we can increase task completion rates, which raises usability and user satisfaction, which raises just everything.
Did you know that there is a mathmatical formula for Fitts’ Law? I didn’t. But it’s MT = a + b log2(2A/W). I’m not going to bother to explain that, but the whole point of this post is the W which stands for width of target. Which is what we are increasing. Which is a good thing.
Tagged As CSS, HCI, Interaction Design
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Posted at 02:17 PM
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xp icons
Thanks for the link to that article. Great way to deal with links to improve web usability.
Posted by: xp icons | August 30, 2004 01:27 AM