I am currently creating user interfaces in both 2D (screens with mouse and keyboard) and 3D (VR headsets with gloves that track hand and finger motions). This is giving me an opportunity to compare and contrast.
Clearly the 3D space is far larger and richer. In essential ways it mimics the richness and freedom that we experience in reality as we move our bodies through physical space.
But the 2D paradigm has its own advantages. There is something to be said for “less is more”.
For certain applications, 2D seems ideal. Spreadsheets come to mind. There might be a better way to do spreadsheets in a full 3D room simulation, but I don’t think we would know for sure until a good designer comes along and shows us an example.
Even when we are fully immersed in a realistic 3D simulation, I wonder whether we will go full 3D.
After we are all in The Matrix, we might be surprised at the retro interfaces we end up with in there. Maybe we will still be using screens with computer mouse and keyboard.
Maybe it’s because we can only see one slice of 3D visualization at a time?
For creatures living in a 4D world, parsing a 3D visualization should be natural for them. Though they could navigate in 4D, they eyes may not see all slices of a 4D cube, hence understanding 4D is a challenge for them as well.
Talking out loud here… 2 dimensions is often sufficient for the task at hand: files trees, documents, etc. When we need another level, we seem okay opening folders or albums, and if more depth is needed, we use search tools or the commandline to call forth the creatures of the dark.
However, when it comes to searching media – videos, photos – on the web, I think there’s huge potential for Doctor Octopus arms, pushing and pulling another dimension. Youtube videos could be organized as [ old to new release * channels * familiar themes to unusual material ]. If you select a video or a block of videos, a thousand other recommendations could also light up. But with that would come a lot of extra data loading and processing, unless there’s a good caching or data reduction scheme.
@Ruofei I am reminded of this old game concept in which the player moved between different three-dimensional slices to traverse the world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yW–eQaA2I