It sounds like you have a categorization problem, which cannot be solved by improving target acquisition. To go on with your pun: Fitts law does not fit here.
Oleh On 10/5/07, Alan Wexelblat <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I've been trying to figure out how to use Fitt's Law properly to > increase the targetability of a dense tree structure, as displayed on > a browser page. > > The information in the hierarchy is three levels, call them Category, > Subcategory, and Items. > > There are about 5 Categories, each of which has 3-10 Subcategories and > each subcategory has 1-15 Items. > > Displaying these data in a conventional tree leads to a display that > is a grand pain to target on. The left side is nice and large and > clear, but the right column of Items is dense and packed so that > targeting becomes quite slow. > > Ideally I'd replace the tree with something like a pie menu or other > progressive display, except that the users are infrequent visitors. > We cannot expect them to learn or remember the taxonomy. The display > needs to support scanning. > > In addition, a significant fraction of the users know the NAME of the > thing they want, but again do not know or remember the categories. > Thus I want to support conventional "find" functionality (ctrl-F). > > My initial attempt involved using Javascript tricks to expand the size > of the Items group when the user's mouse got nearby, but that seems to > confuse people as their target appears to "jump" and may not be where > they're tracking to. Expanding the font itself (by bolding or changing > size) also has bad effects in that it can cause word wrap, meaning the > target is suddenly very far away from where the person is tracking. > > Can anyone suggest a way I can meet the two constraints (support > scanning; support find-ability by name) while improving the > time-to-target problem for people who are actually using the taxonomic > hierarchy? > > -- > --Alan Wexelblat > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > List Guidelines ............ http://beta.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://beta.ixda.org/help > Unsubscribe ................ http://beta.ixda.org/unsubscribe > Questions .................. [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Home ....................... http://beta.ixda.org > -- Oleh Kovalchuke Interaction Design is the Design of Time http://www.tangospring.com/IxDtopicWhatIsInteractionDesign.htm ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] List Guidelines ............ http://beta.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://beta.ixda.org/help Unsubscribe ................ http://beta.ixda.org/unsubscribe Questions .................. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Home ....................... http://beta.ixda.org
