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Comment by jakear | Hacker News Reader

Are you honestly, and I mean honestly honestly, trying to argue that needing to scroll then move your mouse to reach a target can not be thought of as a target being further away when it comes to Fitts' law and the relationship between distance and time to acquire a target? It seems to me that you are choosing to focus on the specific text used in a rule as opposed to the concept that rule is trying to convey. I don't enjoy arguing over that sort of thing whatsoever, so I'll have to call it a day and go back to spreading mulch. Good day :)

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Your question is a straw man. You can think of scrolling as something being further away if you want, and I don't disagree. That doesn't mean Fitts' law applies.

Fitts' law is referring to a single interaction ("movement") with visible targets, not a general abstract concept of "futher away" that you can extend in any way and to any topic you want across multiple interactions. It is precisely because you have to use two different movements, as you pointed out, to both scroll to see the target and then move your mouse or hand to reach the target, that Fitts' law does not apply here.

Speaking more generally, there is a big problem with your assumption here that you can take interaction studies (or any scientific results) out of context just because you can think of it as analogous. When researchers have studied human perception and motions under specific conditions, you cannot assume the findings apply to conditions that weren't tested.

It is going to be difficult to beat this comment as the strangest I have ever read on here.

There isn't anything to be argued. You said that the scrolling violates Rule #3, which is about Fitts's law specifically. Scrolling has nothing to do with Fitts's law.

Scrolling absolutely has to do with Fitt's law. Not only is the target further away, it's constantly moving.

You should read and take to heart this comment by dahart, especially the last paragraph: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24032182

You've been confidently wrong about the only two rules you've commented on.

I either disagree with or do not understand either of your sentences.

The trend is unflattering for you one way or another.

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