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Horizontal orientation was experienced to be
hard, because light did not help users in orientation.
The users thought that a clear landmark for helping
in horizontal orientation would be needed, for
example a compass on the floor, windows that
would provide a view to outside world or some
object inside the space that calls users’ attention.
Some users had problems related to navigational
controls, partly because they did not get any
guidance at the beginning. Especially two older
users had difficulties in navigation tasks that may
have been derived from the fact that they had less
experience of different types of computer
applications.
Evaluation showed that users find 3D desktop
metaphor useful and also exciting. In general users’
experiences were positive and most of them said that
3D user interface could be useful in their every day
life.
5 DISCUSSION
We created a set of design principles for 3D user
interfaces. The user evaluations showed that some of
these principles would be beneficial in designing 3D
user interfaces and that these principles are a good
start for developing the design of 3D interfaces.
Although the results are preliminary, we find this
work as an important contribution. More and more
3D user interfaces are being designed but no
guidelines for designing desktop 3D user interfaces
exist.
Our research has limitations that need to be
understood. First, the study was done based on a
single prototype. The principles were implemented
in the prototype but the details of user interface
design impact on the usability, too. Thereby, the
isolation of the impact of principles from the other
design solutions is not easy.
Second, our tests were preliminary ones and of
qualitative nature. In qualitative research results are
always subjective despite that the results are based
on thorough analysis of video and written material.
The results suggest paths for further research.
The principles could cover better horizontal
orientation and logical ways of starting and ending
using the application. Standard moving methods
could be developed so that users could use different
applications after they have learned one. Another
interesting question is whether 3D user interfaces
could be an answer to the problems small 2D screens
of mobile devices.
Our research suggests, that design principles can
be derived from the existing 3D user interface
design practices, and this can result in 3D interfaces
that are easy and effective to use.
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