The Ergonomics of Computer Pointing Devices

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

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2. Introduction

   • Sarah A. Douglas, Anant Kartik Mithal

   Pages 1-10

3. Human Motor Performance

   • Sarah A. Douglas, Anant Kartik Mithal

   Pages 11-36

4. Factors in Applying Psychomotor Studies to Pointing Devices

   • Sarah A. Douglas, Anant Kartik Mithal

   Pages 37-62

5. A Survey of Ergonomic Studies

   • Sarah A. Douglas, Anant Kartik Mithal

   Pages 63-84

6. Evaluating New Devices: A Case Study

   • Sarah A. Douglas, Anant Kartik Mithal

   Pages 85-115

7. Using the Microstructure of Movement to Understand Device Performance

   • Sarah A. Douglas, Anant Kartik Mithal

   Pages 117-152

8. Performance Models

   • Sarah A. Douglas, Anant Kartik Mithal

   Pages 153-188

9. Challenges of the Present and Future

   • Sarah A. Douglas, Anant Kartik Mithal

   Pages 189-217

10. Bibliography

    • Sarah A. Douglas, Anant Kartik Mithal

    Pages 219-229

11. Back Matter

    Pages 231-233

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We first began looking at pointing devices and human performance in 1990 when the senior author, Sarah Douglas, was asked to evaluate the human performance ofa rather novel device: a finger-controlled isometric joystick placed under a key on the keyboard. Since 1990 we have been involved in the development and evaluation ofother isometric joysticks, a foot-controlled mouse, a trackball, and a wearable computer with head­ mounted display. We unabashedly believe that design and evaluation of pointing devices should evolve from a broad spectrum of values which place the human being at the center. These values include performance iss­ ues such as pointing-time and errors, physical issues such as comfort and health, and contextual issues such as task usabilityand user acceptance. This book chronicles this six-year history of our relationship as teacher (Douglas) and student (Mithal), as we moved from more traditional evalu­ ation using Fitts' law as the paradigm, to understanding the basic research literature on psychomotor behavior. During that process we became pro­ foundly aware that many designers of pointing devices fail to understand the constraints of human performance, and often do not even consider experimental evaluation critical to usability decisions before marketing a device. We also became aware ofthe fact that, contraryto popularbeliefin the human-computer interaction community, the problem of predicting pointing device performance has not been solved by Fitts' law. Similarly, our expectations were biased by the cognitive revolution of the past 15 years with the beliefpointing device research was 'low-level' and uninter­ esting.

• Design
• Interface
• Joystick
• Standards
• Trackball
• computer
• ergonomics
• performance
• user interface
• virtual reality

• Department of Computer and Information Science, College of Arts and Sciences, Eugene, USA

  Sarah A. Douglas, Anant Kartik Mithal

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