As an Interaction Designer with a background in various forms of 2D media design, I increasingly find myself surrounded by the emerging discipline of 3D, or more specifically, stereoscopic user interface design.
Stereoscopic screens use two images of the same object taken at slightly different angles to create the illusion of depth when viewed together. Most of today’s stereoscopic screens, such as all of those new 3D TVs on the market, require the use of special glasses to see the 3D image. But advances in stereoscopic screen technology mean that soon we won’t need to wear those annoying specs to see a 3D image. These no-glasses-required stereoscopic screens are usually referred to as auto-stereoscopic.
As auto-stereoscopic screens and devices become more prevalent, such as the soon to be released Nintendo 3DS shown below, these screens will grow increasingly popular in the coming years.
All of these new stereoscopic screens and devices will naturally need easy to use stereoscopic user interfaces to control them. These new user interfaces can offer some interesting and intuitive benefits that can’t be accomplished in 2D. For example, imagine for a moment that instead of a fake shadow behind a window on your computer that attempts to communicate depth, you can actually see that depth by tilting your head slightly to peak behind the window.
A company called TAT has an excellent example of something similar in the video clip below. In this example, the user can simply tilt the phone forward to reveal the date and time. This interaction helps keep the user interface clean by not constantly showing the information, while also offering a more intuitive way of revealing the information compared to pressing a button.
While it may be uncomfortable at first for us 2D designers to transition into designing in the third dimension, I’m excited by the possibilities this new, intuitive frontier in user interface design can offer.
Look forward to one day we take off the 2D23D transforming glasses!