IKIVO, which supplies rich media application-enabling solutions, has produced a Whitepaper examining the possibilities and limitations of using 3D for mobile user interface (UI) solutions.
The emergence of mobile device software and hardware supporting 3D poses the question of why and how 3D should be used in mobile user interfaces to deliver true user benefit. IKIVOs Whitepaper breaks down the key issues necessary to consider when evaluating the potential of 3D in what has to date been a primarily 2D, or pseudo 3D, environment.
The Whitepaper finds that development of 3D user interfaces has typically been constrained by technology, and the difficulty of evolving user interaction concepts to 3D, while maintaining or improving user functionality. Today, says IKIVO, the technology is capable of a reasonable 3D UI experience on mobile devices, but the difficulty of evolving 2D interaction concepts to user friendly 3D concepts remains.
IKIVO notes that the popularity of the iPhone, with its largely 2D interface, but impressive 3D gaming, has indicated that mobile users are more interested in usable functionality than impressive 3D graphics effects.
The evolution of 3D mobile interfaces is at a crossroads, says IKIVO CEO, Huw W. Hampson-Jones. Innovations in 3D UI have been widely available for PCs since the launch of Microsofts Windows Vista in 2005, but have largely been ignored by the mobile user community, who prefer the faster performance that turning off 3D effects can bring. The 3D user experience for mobile devices has only recently been introduced, and has delivered a significant wow factor to many devices. This innovation needs to deliver real user benefit if it is to be widely adopted and developed in the coming years.