Reaction
Aim trainer
Tap each round target as fast as you can.Click each round target as fast as you can.
30 targets. It takes about a minute.
About this aim trainer
This aim trainer shows how quickly and how accurately you can hit round targets with a mouse or a finger. One target is on the screen at a time; when you hit it, the next one appears somewhere else, in one of three sizes. After 30 targets you see your time per target, your accuracy and a throughput score in bits per second, which takes both the distance and the size of each target into account[1]. It is free, needs no account, and your results stay in this browser.
How the test works
- Press Start. The aiming area fills the screen with one round target in it.
- Hit the first target. This starts the clock, but its own time does not count.
- Hit each target as it appears, as fast and as accurately as you can. A press beside a target counts as a miss.
- After the last target you see your score. Press Try again to improve it.
What is a good aim score?
Your throughput in bits per second combines speed and accuracy, so it does not fall for hitting targets carelessly or slowly. Published studies of mouse pointing report a range of throughputs, shown in the table. They used other pointing tasks and adjusted for accuracy in ways this page does not, so the range is for orientation only: do not read a score below it as bad or above it as good.
| What | Figure |
|---|---|
| Lowest throughput of five published mouse studies | 3.7 bits per second |
| Highest throughput of five published mouse studies | 4.9 bits per second |
| Year of the review | 2004 |
For a finger on a touch screen no published range fits, so this page only sets your result beside your own earlier runs, which are kept in this browser. The best way to read your score is to run the test a few times and watch how it moves.
How we measure
The target sizes are three, used equally often, and the positions are drawn for each run so that no target is close to the one before it. The time of a movement is the time between two hits, taken from the time stamps of your presses, and a press that follows another within a tenth of a second is treated as the echo of the first. A run is compared with the published range only if you hit at least 30 targets and at least six in ten of your presses landed on a target.
If you switch to another tab or resize the window during a run, the run stops and nothing is saved, because the layout of the targets depends on the size of the area. Your result is kept in this browser only; you can read about us to see who makes the site.
How to get faster and more accurate
- Look at the next target as soon as the last one is hit, and move your eyes before your hand.
- Do not chase top speed: the score rewards accuracy too, and each miss costs time.
- On a mouse, move from the arm or the wrist rather than only the fingers, and keep a loose grip.
- Set the pointer speed of your system so that one comfortable sweep crosses the area.
- Do a few runs to warm up before you read anything into a score.
Mouse or touch screen?
Both work, and the page records which one you used. A finger covers more of the screen than a pointer does, and hides the target as it lands, so scores from the two are not the same kind of number. Compare a touch run with other touch runs and a mouse run with other mouse runs.
Questions
Is the aim trainer free?
Yes. There is no account and no sign-up, and your results stay in this browser.
What is throughput?
It is a score in bits per second from a law of pointing named after Fitts. It rises when you hit targets that are farther or smaller in the same time, so it combines speed and accuracy.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. Tap the targets with your finger. The page records that you used a touch screen and compares you only with your own earlier runs.
Why was my run not compared?
A run is kept but not compared if too few targets were timed, too many presses missed, or the times were too even to tell. Open How we measured this to see which.
Sources
- Soukoreff, R. W., & MacKenzie, I. S. (2004). Towards a standard for pointing device evaluation, perspectives on 27 years of Fitts' law research in HCI. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 61(6), 751–789.doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2004.09.001
Participants of five published mouse studies from four research groups