One question that keeps coming up in our research lab at NYU is to what extent interaction in two dimensions is intrinsic to humans. After all, until now, pretty much all of our interaction with information has been via text, buttons, sliders, etc, arranged on on flat planar surfaces.
Did we develop those kinds of interfaces because our brains are predisposed, biologically, to think in terms of 2D images? Or is the development of such interfaces mainly the result of technological limitations?
This isn’t just about computers. Our preference for interacting with shapes on flat surfaces long predates the development of computers. Think of elevator buttons, or piano keyboards, to take just two examples.
If in a few years we are all wearing mixed reality glasses, and we can see information floating in the air all about us, will that change how we design information interfaces? Will our reality start to resemble a scene of Tony Stark interacting with Jarvis?
Or will we just end up with more places to put those good old 2D interfaces that we seem to like so much?