While I don't dispute that some humans have great spatial capabilities, not all do. Most people I know don't care for FPS type video games because they become lost. And it's not just in virtual environments that people get lost. I have a friend who can walk out of a store at the mall and not know which way we came from previously.
Also, an abstracted interface is almost always significantly faster than a 3D environment. Consider an email application again. Sure I could have have a room with boxes or doors which represent folders. But haven't you ever played a 3D video game where you have to search all the boxes in the room to find the treasure? It's tedious as hell. A simple expandable list structure is significantly faster to use. I've even used various 3D file structure environments. UMN developed a 3D Gopher a decade ago. And long before OS X, Apple created a 3D web browser that clustered sites by content type and you could fly from cluster to cluster with more content-rich sites having larger objects than smaller sites. Really amazing, but it was tedious to use as more than a novelty. It will be interesting to see what developers do with Avalon. I have a feeling though that it will be a lot like Flash RIAs and Flex. A few developers getting really excited and creating a lot of eye candy. -Kevin On Wed, 05 Jan 2005 11:04:39 -0500, Jerry Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I am still looking forward to it. > > Imagine a 3d desktop that includes different rooms of storage. One room is > long-term storage, where older files are archived as zip files if not used in > a while. There are catalog draws full of table of contents from all my > external CDs and DVDs. There is a map drawer, a TV, a stereo. A safe with a > combo lock. photo albums. And, of course, little roomba bots cleaning up > after me. > > I already visualize in this way, but the OS does not support my efforts to > date. The human mind is awesome at spacial logic. Our hearing is especially > keen in 3d. We should take advantage of this. > > I agree that a magically opening mailbox with letters that fly out is nice, > but I see that enough on Blue's Clues. I hope they go further. > > Jerry Johnson > Web Developer > Dolan Media Company > > >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 01/05/05 10:54AM >>> > Scenese where opening a mail message would involve clicking on a giant > mailbox which > opens and an envelope flies out and fills the screen, opens the flap, > the letter slides out and unfolds presenting the message. > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Find out how CFTicket can increase your company's customer support efficiency by 100% http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=49 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:141620 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
