Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by nirvana 5034 days ago
I submit that we are talking about a physiological issue, not a preference.

Attempting to hit a target in the middle of the screen is more difficult for humans than hitting a target at the very top of the screen.

When you overshoot the target in the middle of the screen, you have to come back around to click on it.

When you overshoot the target at the top of the screen, the pointer is stopped by the border of the display. Stopped right on the target, and you can just click.

It may not feel faster to you-- that's perception.

My point is that it is faster. And I haven't seen an argument for why the two things would be reversed for any specific person.

It's the nature of the latency between our eyes, mind and muscles.

2 comments

There's more to accessing commands in a UI than physically manipulating an input device. I think you've got tunnel vision here.
So you're saying that humans have laser-like accuracy in the horizontal dimension, and sloppy accuracy in the vertical? Your interpretation of the science is poor.
I don't know how you get that interpretation from the parent post. Only having to worry about one degree of freedom in your movement is much easier / faster than having to manage two.
In the example, the user doesn't have to make a horizontal adjustment at all - the cursor conveniently stops right on target.