Card, English, and Burr (1978)

Abstract

We revisit the Fitts? law model published 25 years ago by Card, English, and Burr. Their research was important because it was the first comparative evaluation of the mouse, and also the first use of Fitts? law in HCI. For the mouse, they reported MT = 1.03 + 0.096 ID, with throughput reported as the slope reciprocal: TP = 1 / 0.96 = 10.3 bps. We re-analyse their data in view of ISO9241-9, the new standard for evaluating pointing devices. The reanalysis yields a throughput of 2.65 bps, or 4.32 bps including a nominal adjustment for the time for the hand to adjust its grip on the mouse. These values are closer to recently published ISO-conforming values for the mouse.