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Software Engineering vocabulary · Web, Mobile and Interface Development

Fitts's law

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In software engineering, Fitts's law means: A principle stating that the time needed to reach a target depends on its distance and size: bigger and closer targets are faster and easier to hit.

In Turkish: Fitts yasası, Fitts kanunu

How it is used

Described by psychologist Paul Fitts in 1954. Designers use it to argue for larger buttons, especially on mobile, and for placing frequent actions close to where the user's finger or pointer already is.

Example sentences

  1. By Fitts's law, that tiny close icon in the corner is slow and hard to tap.

  2. Following Fitts's law, we made the 'Next' button full-width on mobile.

Common collocations

  • apply Fitts's law
  • according to Fitts's law
  • target size
  • touch target
  • buttonA clickable or tappable element that lets users perform an action, such as submitting a form, saving changes or opening a menu.
  • interaction designThe part of design that decides how a product behaves when people use it: what happens when they tap, type, swipe or wait, and how the system responds.
  • gestureA movement of the fingers on a touchscreen, such as a tap, swipe, pinch or long press, that tells a device to do something.
  • cognitive loadThe amount of mental effort a person needs to understand and use something; too much of it makes people slow, confused or likely to give up.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Web, Mobile and Interface Development

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