A Web-based Test of Fitts’ Law
is hoping to gather data to reinforce/further understand people’s ability to hit smaller or larger targets with a pointing device such as a mouse. One quirk of this study is the posting of the “high scores” of participants. I wonder, does this effect the outcome. I realized when I did my first test in my current set up (ergonomically correct right hander using a left mouse to avoid the reach across the number pad) I scored incredibly poorly— the high scorer has a time a third of mine. SO I did the test again, this time with my stylus in my right hand, and this time the high scorer beat me by a larger margin, but a livable one.
So I moved from my typical mousing behavior when surfing into my high-control mode I only use for drawing, essentially for ego reasons. I also noticed that durning the test while I was faster I was also considerably less accurate, and relied on multiple “shots” rather than one accurate one.
Will their data reflect typical human behavior or competitive human behavior… and what does that mean to the study?