Heiko Drewes
ABSTRACT
Fitts derived a formula that allows one to calculate the time it takes to hit a target of a given size. MacKenzie called this formula imperfect and suggested an alternative formula. This paper asks some simple questions about MacKenzie’s theory. If the human-computer interaction (HCI) community does not have satisfying answers, it means that MacKenzie’s formula is unfounded. In consequence, the HCI community should stop using and citing MacKenzie’s formula and use Fitts’ original formula instead and only when necessary. Additionally, the HCI community should review the Fitts’ Law research of the last 35 years concerning criteria that indicate an echo chamber and a filter bubble and debate whether they want to publish papers based on information theory in the future.
Footnotes
1 https://www.hcibook.com/e3/plain/online/fitts-cybernetic/
Footnote2 This section was added after review and discussion
3 https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:iso:9241:-9:ed-1:v1:en
Footnote4 https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=G9MSEncAAAAJ&hl=en (22.7.2022)
Footnote
Supplemental Material
- Heiko Drewes. 2010. Only One Fitts’ Law Formula Please!Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 2813–2822. https://doi.org/10.1145/1753846.1753867Google Scholar
Digital Library
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- Paul M. Fitts. 1954. The information capacity of the human motor system in controlling the amplitude of movement.Journal of experimental psychology 47, 6 (1954), 381–91. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0055392Google ScholarCross Ref
- Paul M. Fitts and J R Peterson. 1964. Information Capacity of Discrete Motor Responses.Journal of Experimental Psychology 67 (1964), 103–12.Google Scholar
- Julien Gori. 2018. Modeling the speed-accuracy tradeoff using the tools of information theory. Ph. D. Dissertation. Université Paris-Saclay, 2. https://pastel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-02005752Google Scholar
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- I. Scott MacKenzie. 1989. A Note on the Information-Theoretic Basis for Fitts’ Law. Journal of Motor Behavior 21, 3 (1989), 323–330. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222895.1989.10735486 arXiv:https://doi.org/10.1080/00222895.1989.10735486PMID: 15136269.Google ScholarCross Ref
- I. Scott MacKenzie, Abigail Sellen, and William A. S. Buxton. 1991. A Comparison of Input Devices in Element Pointing and Dragging Tasks. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (New Orleans, Louisiana, USA) (CHI ’91). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 161–166. https://doi.org/10.1145/108844.108868Google ScholarDigital Library
- Claude E. Shannon. 1948. A mathematical theory of communication. Bell Syst. Tech. J. 27, 3 (1948), 379–423. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1538-7305.1948.tb01338.xGoogle ScholarCross Ref
Index Terms
- The Fitts’ Law Filter Bubble
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