Basic interactions with knowledge objects in an environment.
How the objects get into the environment is outside of scope for these interactions. Further, it should also be possible to interact with a specified volume in an environment with more than one open.
There are two primary shape categories the objects can be instantiated as, depending on interaction need–open documents & icons–and the user will need a quick and intuitive interaction mechanism to toggle between them. These are logically similar to documents and icons on a traditional computer but the icons in XR can easily be modified to take on other appearances:
- Document refers to traditional digital documents opened for reading/interacting with the contained text.
- Icon can be thought of as 3D objects in space which the user can interact with to think, which in some cases contain/are papers.
Not all objects will be able to take both forms (not all objects possible to open). Note also that Polygons can appear as simple rectangular or non-rectangular cubes as well as skeuomorphic representations of papers as single sheets, stacked or bound, meaning that a Paper which is not unfolded for reading behaves like a Polygon, even if it looks like a small paper.
When referring to different kinds of objects and expected ‘metadata’ for layout etc., this refers to using what is available as metadata: Objects & Metadata.
Toggle Instantiation
- Toggle selected/pinched object: Likely Ring Menu
- Toggle category of objects: Likely Mana Menu
‘Document’ Interactions
When knowledge objects are opened to be interacted with as papers they will have interactions similar to Microsoft Word, Apple Pages and Augmented Text Author. In addition:
- Change Document object display:
- Size/proportions
- Color frame
- Text annotations
- Icon annotations
All following interactions are for both document and icon,
with a design focus on icons.
Select & Move
- Pinch to move individual object
- Select multiple objects individually
- Select multiple objects by metadata
- Size/proportions
- Color frame
- Text annotations
- Icon annotations
- Change icon object display:
- Size/proportions
- Color
- Text annotations
- Icon annotations
Views
Show/Hide Objects
- Show/Hide individual object
- Show/Hide selected groups of objects
- Show/Hide of objects by metadata
Open Connected Objects
- Open connected Volumes as icons
- Open connected Volumes into ‘maps’
Layout Objects
- Layout individual object:
- Move to back/move to front
- Layout groups of objects (by group, parent volume or metadata selection):
- Align: left/center/right, top/middle/bottom
- Distribute: horizontally/vertically/evenly
Arrange Objects by Metadata
This is where the user is closest to ‘Minority Report’, ‘Ironman’ or “Fantasia’, where the user can not only arrange knowledge objects manually, but by criteria based on available metadata.
- Arrange by metadata: left-right/right-left/top-down/down-top or grid.
The user needs to choose the objects, specify layout, then by what available category and in which layout