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PreprintarXiv licencearXiv

Thermodynamic Human-Computer Interaction

  • Uzafir Ahmad Rafaq
  • Muaz Hassan
  • Ali Muzaffar
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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.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@misc{rafaq2026thermodynamic,
  title = {{Thermodynamic Human-Computer Interaction}},
  author = {Uzafir Ahmad Rafaq and Muaz Hassan and Ali Muzaffar},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.07123},
  eprint = {2608.07123},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.07123},
}
RIS
TY  - UNPB
TI  - Thermodynamic Human-Computer Interaction
AU  - Uzafir Ahmad Rafaq
AU  - Muaz Hassan
AU  - Ali Muzaffar
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/03
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.07123
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.07123
AB  - 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.
ER  -