{
  "abstract": "Target acquisition is often modeled separately for desktop, mobile, and other interaction modalities. We present Thermodynamic HCI, a framework that splits interaction into thermal equilibrium and non-equilibrium regimes. The theory generalizes across interaction modalities by representing agent-target interaction using kinetic and potential energies. We derive the movement time of Fitts' law and the speed-accuracy tradeoff observed in Schmidt's law from the principles of thermal physics. Furthermore, we develop theorems that describe how target properties, such as the color of a button, affect user accuracy. The target acquisition model, derived from the theory, when evaluated on desktop and mobile website prefetching experiments, achieved an accuracy of 98% for both cursor and touchscreen based interaction. For every clicked link, it produced a fetch:click ratio of 1.37 for desktop and 1.75 for mobile.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2608.07123",
  "author_total": 3,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Uzafir Ahmad Rafaq"
    },
    {
      "name": "Muaz Hassan"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ali Muzaffar"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c0p2824pbj1wh.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2608.07123",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "c0p2824pbj1wh",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.07123",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "cs.HC"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "cs.PF"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "physics.data-an"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1709|Usability and User Interface Design"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7202150422",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2608.07123",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-03",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c0p2824pbj1wh.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:18:31Z",
      "native_id": "2608.07123",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.07123"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:physics.data-an",
      "subfield": "computational"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Thermodynamic Human-Computer Interaction",
  "title_text": "Thermodynamic Human-Computer Interaction",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:18:31Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c0p2824pbj1wh",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}