Both Fitt's and Hicks' law were found in the 50s by experimental psychologists. They are hardly exclusive to HCI.
BTW, a good application of Hicks' law is in a book called "The psychology of menu selection: Designing cognitive control at the human/computer interface" (POMS) by Kent Norman. There is an online version:
BTW, a good application of Hicks' law is in a book called "The psychology of menu selection: Designing cognitive control at the human/computer interface" (POMS) by Kent Norman. There is an online version:
http://lap.umd.edu/POMS/