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The trackball controller: improving the analog stick

Published: 06 May 2010 Publication History

Abstract

Two groups of participants (novice and advanced) completed a study comparing a prototype game controller to a standard game controller for point-select tasks. The prototype game controller replaces the right analog stick of a standard game controller (used for pointing and camera control) with a trackball. We used Fitts' law as per ISO 9241--9 to evaluate the pointing performance of both controllers. In the novice group, the trackball controller's throughput was 2.69 bps -- 60.1% higher than the 1.68 bps observed for the standard controller. In the advanced group the trackball controller's throughput was 3.19 bps -- 58.7% higher than the 2.01 bps observed for the standard controller. Although the trackball controller performed better in terms of throughput, pointer path was more direct with the standard controller.

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    cover image ACM Other conferences
    Futureplay '10: Proceedings of the International Academic Conference on the Future of Game Design and Technology
    May 2010
    282 pages
    ISBN:9781450302357
    DOI:10.1145/1920778
    • Conference Chairs:
    • Bill Kapralos,
    • Andrew Hogue,
    • Simon Xu
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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    Published: 06 May 2010

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    Author Tags

    1. Fitts' law
    2. analog joystick
    3. game controllers
    4. performance evaluation
    5. pointing devices
    6. trackball
    7. video games

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    Futureplay '10: Futureplay '10 @ GDC Canada
    May 6 - 7, 2010
    British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

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    • (2024)Comparing the Effectiveness and Ergonomics of Smartphone-Based GamepadsProceedings of Mensch und Computer 202410.1145/3670653.3670676(207-218)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2024
    • (2023)ExpanStick: Augmenting Gamepad Thumbstick using Force at the LimitProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36110427:CHI PLAY(588-610)Online publication date: 4-Oct-2023
    • (2023)TouchWheel: Enabling Flick-and-Stop Interaction on the Mouse WheelInternational Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2023.219025940:13(3539-3551)Online publication date: 20-Mar-2023
    • (2022)ViewfinderVR: configurable viewfinder for selection of distant objects in VRVirtual Reality10.1007/s10055-022-00649-z26:4(1573-1592)Online publication date: 6-May-2022
    • (2019)Computational Design and Fabrication of Customized GamepadsProceedings of the 17th ACM SIGGRAPH International Conference on Virtual-Reality Continuum and its Applications in Industry10.1145/3359997.3365695(1-11)Online publication date: 14-Nov-2019
    • (2019)Joystick versus Mouse in First Person Shooters: Mouse Is Faster than JoystickHuman Interaction and Emerging Technologies10.1007/978-3-030-25629-6_58(378-382)Online publication date: 25-Jul-2019
    • (2018)Evaluating Devices for Object Rotation in 3DUniversal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Methods, Technologies, and Users10.1007/978-3-319-92049-8_12(160-177)Online publication date: 5-Jun-2018
    • (2017)A Fitts' Law Evaluation of Video Game ControllersProceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3027063.3053213(2860-2866)Online publication date: 6-May-2017
    • (2014)Evaluation of the Leap Motion Controller as a New Contact-Free Pointing DeviceSensors10.3390/s15010021415:1(214-233)Online publication date: 24-Dec-2014
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