Perceptual Cues and Subjective Organization in a Virtual Information Workspace

Abstract

The present study examined the effectiveness of three types of virtual desktop displays with varying degrees of perceptual cues: two-dimensional (2D) display, three-dimensional (3D) display without motion, and 3D display with motion parallax. It was expected that performance would improve as the number of perceptual cues increased. Participants were asked to search for documents either with an organizational scheme they created themselves or with a preconstructed arrangement. As expected, those who organized their own desktops performed better than those using a preconstructed arrangement; however, these effects were moderated by cue condition. Differences among the cues had no effect on subjective organization. However, searching a preconstructed arrangement benefited from a 2D representation. These findings suggest that a 3D representation may be ill suited to tasks in which semantic material is stored in a virtual information space.