You might think that your mouse pointer — and the rest of your computer’s user interface for that matter — was designed with a bucket load of human intuition and large dollop of design savvy. You’d be right, of course — but there was also a healthy amount of maths involved in the process.
In this video, Dr Sarah Wiseman explains how a piece of maths known as Fitts’s Law was used by interface designers to help make them as easy to use as possible. I won’t get bogged down in the maths here, instead letting Sarah explain — but if you want to known more, then the Wikipedia article is an interesting first step.
Picture: Gabriele Teotino/Flickr