sorry - i tend to be more eloquent than that -Oleh is right - but I am so psyched that you were thinking about Fitt's Law that I am almost beside myself - this is exactly why I like IxDA - practitioners dealing with real problems while not forgetting all the good cog sci and HCI stuff that came before us.
sorry - more later - dinner guests just arrived - I just didn't want to look like a putz. w On 10/5/07, William Evans <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > But - thata > > will evans > user experience architect > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > 617.281.1281 > > > On Oct 5, 2007, at 7:17 PM, "Oleh Kovalchuke" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > 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 > -- ~ will "Where you innovate, how you innovate, and what you innovate are design problems" ------------------------------------------------------- will evans user experience architect [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------- ________________________________________________________________ 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
