To rephrase and broaden what you've said ... the problem with 3D is the lack of a generally acceptable metaphor that has a reasonably comprehensible conceptual model behind it and a sufficiently easy and powerful means of interaction to initiate computation, storage, and retrieval of information.
Some generally random thoughts come to mind ...
Just as a joystick doesn't cut it as a pointer controller for the traditional 2D desktop metaphor, likewise a mouse probably doesn't cut it for a 3D environment. We probably need something else ... a data glove? Something else?
You bring up the idea of "room" and other similar concepts of location. But does the interface have to imply storage at location? Right now I have a place to put email that was sent from user Bob, which is in the "Bob" file which is in the "email" folder. But what about other things I associate with Bob? Well, they're not email. And email has subjects -- what if I want all the data associated by subject? In truth, I want the same piece of information in multiple places. So that might mean that information should actually live in multiple places. Or it should exist both in a single concrete place, plus be known about in multiple other contexts. So maybe that message does live in a particular file or folder or room, but when I'm looking at the topic "Pianovores" (creatures that eat pianos), I might see the message in Bob's email file, wherever it may be, as well as the speech I wrote in 2nd grade about it, and an article on a news web site somewhere else.
I'm thinking that the form of the view depends on the context of the work or task that we're working on. The hard part is what does that actually look like?
Another question -- what widgets are available in 3D? What do they look like? How do I interact with them? How are they assembled to make full user interfaces? Or would a component metaphor no longer really work in 3D? What about the input devices? What will I use?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2003-02-23 04:01 pm (UTC)Some generally random thoughts come to mind ...
Just as a joystick doesn't cut it as a pointer controller for the traditional 2D desktop metaphor, likewise a mouse probably doesn't cut it for a 3D environment. We probably need something else ... a data glove? Something else?
You bring up the idea of "room" and other similar concepts of location. But does the interface have to imply storage at location? Right now I have a place to put email that was sent from user Bob, which is in the "Bob" file which is in the "email" folder. But what about other things I associate with Bob? Well, they're not email. And email has subjects -- what if I want all the data associated by subject? In truth, I want the same piece of information in multiple places. So that might mean that information should actually live in multiple places. Or it should exist both in a single concrete place, plus be known about in multiple other contexts. So maybe that message does live in a particular file or folder or room, but when I'm looking at the topic "Pianovores" (creatures that eat pianos), I might see the message in Bob's email file, wherever it may be, as well as the speech I wrote in 2nd grade about it, and an article on a news web site somewhere else.
I'm thinking that the form of the view depends on the context of the work or task that we're working on. The hard part is what does that actually look like?
Another question -- what widgets are available in 3D? What do they look like? How do I interact with them? How are they assembled to make full user interfaces? Or would a component metaphor no longer really work in 3D? What about the input devices? What will I use?