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Data Mountain
Using Spatial Memory for
Document Management
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George
Robertson, Mary
Czerwinski,
Kevin Larson,
Daniel C. Robbins, David
Thiel, and Maarten van Dantzich |
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Effective management of documents on
computers has been a central user interface problem for many years. One
common approach involves using 2D spatial layouts of icons representing
the documents, particularly for in-formation workspace tasks. This
approach takes advantage of human 2D spatial cognition. More recently,
several 3D spatial layouts have engaged 3D spatial cognition capabilities.
Some have attempted to use spatial memory in 3D virtual environments.
However, there has been no proof to date that spatial memory works the
same way in 3D virtual environments as it does in the real world. We
describe a new technique for document management called the Data Mountain,
which allows users to place documents at arbitrary positions on an
inclined plane in a 3D desktop virtual environment using a simple 2D
inter-action technique. We discuss how the design evolved in response to
user feedback. We also describe a user study that demonstrates that the
Data Mountain does take ad-vantage of spatial memory. Our study
demonstrates that the Data Mountain has statistically reliable advantages
over the Microsoft Internet Explorer Favorites mechanism for managing
documents of interest in an information workspace. |
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