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StraightFace column by Mike Pell |
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Back to
the Future (by George)
December 25, 2001 Need to invent the future of user interfaces? Well, you’re in luck – but it takes going back through what George Robertson of MSR has been up to for the last ten years.
Sorry to break this to you, but your dream is toast. I know you wanted to invent the killer 3D user interface of the future. I do. You do. We all do. But the truth is, someone’s not only beat us all to it, he’s even coded it up. Bummer, huh? Oh well, we can still steal from the best. Right Steve? If you’re an up-and-comer and pay no mind to the past, I’ll catch you up quickly – my man George Robertson is the undisputed heavyweight champion of three dimensional user interfaces (3D UIs), which is where I put my money for the future of software. He’ll knock you out of thinking in your crusty old paradigm with one look at any part of his design portfolio. But don’t take my word for that. Check it out for yourself. George’s innovative body of work is one of the most impressive you’ll find in any discipline of computer science, dating back to his work with Thinking Machines, Xerox PARC and most recently Microsoft Research (MSR). Much of his body of work is published in CHI Proceedings and industry journals. Just search for it. You’ll also find some great work by Daniel Robbins, another MSR veteran and 3D UI trailblazer.
Future Boy George and I both have that abnormal gene that makes us think for some strange reason that 3D is the way to advance the sad state-of-affairs in desktop GUI user interfaces. But unlike me, George is an honest-to-goodness scientist and researcher, who can prove to you why his theories are correct (shamelessly, I favor the Jedi mind trick and a flashy demo). And that’s a really important point here – George and his colleagues have been able to prove quantitatively why 3D is better in certain interface situations, while others merely wave their hands and point to Star Trek episodes. George’s work is the real deal, and he publishes it on a regular basis. But, enough about that academic research stuff. Here’s what I really want to tell you about…
Flying Cars, Video Phones and 3D UI Do you remember watching the Jetsons cartoon as a kid? That show portrayed another George’s flying car (which automatically folded up into his briefcase) and his daughter Judy’s big screen video phone so believably that an entire generation of UI designers grew up thinking that was not only possible, but their divine birthright. So, it’s no wonder that we all think GUIs suck. We’re all waiting for the magical interfaces depicted in the Jetsons to really happen. And that makes us very impatient as designers. But that’s where George’s work comes in. It graphically illustrates for everyone how user interfaces will indeed advance over time, and opens our minds to the possibilities of alternate ways of doing computing tasks and looking at information.
Uhh, I lost you there OK, I’ll give you a concrete example of how George has moved GUIs along using 3D UI… The first widespread 3D UIs for non-gamers sprouted up back in the dreamy days of VRML in the late 1990’s. Problem was those first 3D browsers almost encouraged you to get lost. The interfaces used to explore virtual worlds exposed controls for moving with six degrees of freedom (which is five too many most of the time). VRML browser designers looked at kids playing Quake and thought the average person could deal with a 3D space. That’s funny now, isn’t it? But back then, the standard was to let people explore (i.e. get lost and upside-down) in virtual worlds. The thing that was missing was imposed constraint in 3space (that sounds awful, but it’s for your own good – trust me). George and crew at MSR knew that principle very well, and applied it when they created the Data Mountain prototype and later published their results. The Data Mountain allowed average people to see a collection of web pages in a 3D space (visually resembling a bunch of web page thumbnails on a slight hill or mountain) that could easily be used to sort or arrange. It relied on spatial memory to improve people’s ability to find. But the 3D visuals used weren’t as important as the interaction principal at work – put things “on rails” in 3space to get the result you’re after. It’s not hard to image how this approach and technique will make its way into some Microsoft application where finding and sorting through documents or images is important. ‘nuff said.
For my next trick One more example, and I’ll let you go invent the future. George came up with a visualization concept that utilizes 3D animation to clearly display multiple relationships between pieces of information, seemingly unrelated in some cases. The Polyarchy, as its called, is an evolutionary enhancement to the ubiquitous tree hierarchy used to display most of our file structures and outline views of information. Just using 3D in the UI is not the central point, but it makes the big win here possible. Ordinary people can now grasp how one piece of information relates to another, and 3D animation is merely there to help them make that conceptual leap. Again, here’s a design concept using 3D that’s proven out through solid usability testing that’s just too big to not make its way into the mainstream before long.
So, why am I telling you all this? Because all interface designers are guilty of not looking deeply enough into the past when we try to invent the future, especially when trying to use 3D graphics in next generation interfaces. I’m even guilty of that most days, and I’m the one harping on it to you. It’s natural to think that our godlike powers of perception and extraordinary vision will naturally propel us to the next level of interface nirvana, but I’m telling ya something here – check the map first. There are already some outposts in the new frontier of 3D UI, and they’re worth exploring. George Robertson and many others have not only blazed the trail to next generation user interfaces, they’ve extensively documented and tested it on real people. So, go BACK to the Future. You’ll be amazed. M. Pell [ P.S. Hey George – just make that check payable to “Mike Pell” – thanks. ]
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