Taskbar At The Top

I like to keep my taskbar at the top of the screen, in the style of the MacOS. There is a very practical reason for this; by placing the taskbar at the top, most of the things that I need to click on—including the programs on the Start menu and my current application’s standard menu (“File – Edit -View – etc.”)—are grouped together in a relatively small area of the screen:

nav_top.jpg

This means that my mouse needs to travel shorter distances during regular work.

The principle at work behind this idea is called Fitt’s Law. It states that the time to required to click on a target is a function of the distance
to and size of the target. In other words, it’s easier to click on things that are large and nearby.

June 23, 2002 | Archived in Design