Spatial Interface Design

virtual, user, interface, room, reality, 3D, three, dimensional

Present-day virtual user interfaces tend to rely on the concept of rendering real objects known from the physical world. The main goal of such interfaces is usually the creation of easily controlled and well-known environments.

This document describes two different approaches (artistic concept and a technological implementation) to the creation of virtual environment. It renders common problems related to the visualization of hierarchical structures within the reality-like frame. Hierarchical structures are usually too large to be displayed at once- even partially. A typical example is the classical file system with thousands of files and folders. The incoherence within the abstract hierarchical representation transformed into a real-world structure results in heavy limitations of the reality-like environments.

This document is also addressing the basic questions related to the creation of 3D interfaces. It is an attempt to provide sufficient arguments to show the value of such interfaces.