Abstract

Designing interfaces for 3D VR environment navigation is a complex undertaking. Trying to give the user more freedom in his interactions and an immersive experience most novel interfaces rely on spatial input utilizing tracking systems. To keep the system intuitive and immediately understandable they usually rely on movement metaphors relating to known skills or concepts and familiar motions already practiced like using a steering wheel while driving. This work examines an interface using two metaphors and the problems occuring when allowing to make use of both at the same time. The concept examined here uses a hand-held tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab) held sideways. Prior to this work, two metaphors have already been established and tested. The first is the car's steering wheel metaphor while the second is analogous to an airplane leaning into a turn. Depending on the way the device is held the car metaphor is expected to be dominant in the upright position. Airplane should correlate more with a flat holding position. Tests have shown this to be mostly true. They also showed that a seamless transitioning parallel use of both metaphors for all holding positions is desirable. This however lead to problems with the airplane metaphor. Airplane relies on the degree of turning the device around its local axis parallel to the tablet's screen pointing forward when held flat before the user. Holding it upright, turning around the same axis shows an inverted metaphorical refference for turning. Left turns in the flat position become right turns in the upright position. The aim is to find a third metaphor ("window frame") accounting for the previously confusing functionality of the airplane metaphor and integrate it in an equally seamless manner with the existing two.

Results/Implementation/Project Description

Conclusion

[ Slides Kickoff/Final (optional)]