Design Laws of Hand Eye Coordination
For my final project in my design research and theory class, I was assigned to create something that demonstrates a design theory. The theory I was assigned was “hand-eye coordination follows laws.” These laws, specifically Fitt’s Law and the Steering Law, are crucial in creating a user experience that is highly responsive and easy for the user to manipulate.
Fitt’s Law is a principle that should be followed when creating click targets for a digital experience. Whatever medium the experience is on — mobile, game console, or computer — the click targets should be larger than the actual click visual to ensure that the user can land on it first try. Having small click targets creates frustration for users, which makes them less them less likely to come back to the experience. Overall, Fitt’s Law states that click speed is dependent upon the distance from the click target and the size of the click target.
The Steering Law has to do with steering tunnels. Steering tunnels are mostly found in scroll bars and drop down menus. The principle is similar to Fitt’s Law, but it is slightly more complex due to the fact that there is movement involved in these mechanisms. Scroll tunnels must also have enough space for users to land immediately on them, and they should be able to scroll all the way through without obstruction. This law states that the speed of a steering tunnel depends on the distance from the tunnel and the width of the tunnel.
Research
The theory for this project came from the book, “Design With the Mind in Mind.” My initial research was from there, and I later branched out to other scholarly sources to gather more research about the two theories. I also had discussions with some classmates, who brought some very interesting ideas to light about these principles and their real life application.
Ideation
The ideation process involved sketching out several designs until I reached one that I wanted to build upon. I used the Crazy 8s ideation from the Sprint method, and it opened me up to some design ideas that I did not even recognize that I had. Content-wise, I knew more or less what information I wanted to include, but I got to play around with the design a lot.
Build
Once I settled on my favorite sketch, I used Canva to develop a prototype. I decided to create an infographic, because I felt that these concepts would be something you would find on an informational design website. I presented it as an informative post, but with high design quality and simplistic language.
Building the prototype was my favorite part of the design process. I was able to play around with different fonts, line designs, and graphics. Once I built my final prototype, it was time to test.
Testing
I conducted my tests through usability interviews. My main concern about the project was that it was too design-specific — people who were not designers would not understand the purpose. Because of this, I centered my interview questions around the comprehension and legibility of the infographic as a whole.
The general response from the people I interviewed was that the design was appealing, but it did not match the content of the infographic. This gave me good insight as to what I needed to change before I create a final project.
Overall, this project was beneficial to me because it required me to walk myself through every step of the design process. It was fun being able to create something on my own, and see how it built from a sketch all the way to a prototype.
