Interactive 3D Objects, Projections, and Touchscreens

It is widely recognized that features of objects in a user interface can impact aspects of user experience, including visual perception and problem solving. The current study looked at two such issues: 3D object projection and interactivity. Both factors are known to separately influence perception and problem solving; this work connected them together. Utilizing a fixed touchscreen user interface, we used two projections of 3D interactive cubes: oblique and parallel. The task was the Cube Comparison Task (CCT), a task known to be sensitive to both projection of 3D objects and interactivity. We measured the impact of projection of the interactive 3D objects on behaviors relating to alignment of object and environmental axes, foreshortening, and mapping of user interface controls. We also collected general performance measures of response time and accuracy in the CCT. We found minimal impact of projection of the interactive 3D objects on foreshortening, mapping of controls or general performance. However, we found that in both projections of interactive 3D objects, alignment between the object and environmental axes had a significant effect, leading to anisotropies in initial patterns of cube rotations. These anisotropies differed by projection. The results suggested that the manipulation of perceptual factors such as projection of interactive 3D objects can have effects on interactive problem solving, though the nuance of such effects may be influenced by additional factors. In particular, the interactive nature of our touchscreen user interface may have mitigated some effects that were otherwise predicted from prior research.