Program finders are often built for a mouse. We redesigned the mobile filters around where thumbs actually reach.
Education2026A college program finderFitts’s law
Concept for
A college program finder
Sector
Education
Principle
Fitts’s law
Year
2026
The problem
Most prospective students browse degree programs on their phones. Yet program finders often keep desktop controls: small filter chips, tiny checkboxes, and an "Apply" link tucked in the top corner, the hardest place to reach with one hand.
The behavior behind it
Fitts’s law. Big, close targets are quicker to hit.
What gets in the way
Filter controls smaller than a fingertip lead to mis-taps and frustration
The button that shows results sits at the top of the screen, far from the thumb
Chosen filters are hard to see and hard to remove
Before The common patternAfter Our concept
Our concept
Full-width filter keys at least 44px tall, grouped by what students decide first: subject, degree level, start term. A sticky "Show 42 programs" button sits at the bottom of the screen, well within thumb reach, and chosen filters appear as removable tags above the results.
What we would expect
Fewer mis-taps and abandoned searches on phones
More program pages viewed per visit
A search that works one-handed, on the bus
Concept project. Our own design thinking, built from common patterns: not client work, and not based on any single organization.
Seeing this on your site?
We can look at your website the same way.
An audit tests your own site against all twelve principles, with real visitors and your analytics, and ranks every fix by impact.