
This is the first article in a series on common usability and graphical user interface related terms. On the internet, and especially in forum discussions like we all have here on OSNews, it is almost certain that in any given discussion, someone will most likely bring up usability and GUI related terms - things like spatial memory, widgets, consistency,
Fitts' Law, and more. The aim of this series is to explain these terms, learn something about their origins, and finally rate their importance in the field of usability and (graphical) user interface design. We start off with spatial memory - my personal favourite.
Member since:
2005-07-06
Definitely agreed. I find it especially silly when Fitt's Law gets cited as some sort of trump card argument "proving" the superiority of E.g. global menu bars. Fitt's Law, IIRC, just has to do with where UI elements can be placed to make them easiest to "hit" with the mouse pointer - it doesn't say a thing about which particular elements should be placed in those easy-to-hit parts of the screen. That's the difference between usability theory and its practical implementation.