Abstract
An oblique view of three-dimensional objects is preferred over a frontal or lateral view, partly because it is more familiar and easily recognizable. However, which side of a symmetric object looks better remains unsolved. Reading direction, handedness, and the functionality of objects have been suggested as the potential sources of directional bias. In this study, participants of three online surveys (total N = 1082) were asked to choose one item that looked better or was more aesthetically pleasing; the test was performed between 100 pairs of left- and right-facing mirror-images. The results showed that Japanese participants (both vertical and left-to-right readers) and Israeli participants (right-to-left readers) preferred left-facing images over right-facing images, whereas American participants (left-to-right readers) preferred right-facing images over left-facing images. Weak effects of handedness and object functionality were also found: Left-handers tended to choose right-facing images more than right-handers, and the view of objects with a handle that is graspable by the dominant hand was more likely to be chosen over the opposite side view, regardless of culture. Although previous studies have emphasized the role of reading direction, a close look at the results suggests that it cannot fully account for the preferred facing direction of oblique objects.
Highlights
Imagine that you are taking a picture of a product you want to promote on a brochure or on a website for advertising
The results showed that most of the participants preferred oblique views to the straight front or side views, in the photography task
Niimi and Yokosawa [2] asked 10 Japanese participants to rate the view goodness of 18 common symmetrical objects rotated by 10 different angles from the straight front; they found that the three-quarter views, such as rotated by 27◦ and 45◦, were rated better than other views
Summary
Imagine that you are taking a picture of a product you want to promote on a brochure or on a website for advertising. From which angle should a picture be taken to give the best impression of the three-dimensional object?. Blanz et al [1] used interactive three-dimensional computer graphics and asked participants to choose the viewpoint from which they would take a photograph of common objects for a brochure to give the best possible impression (Experiment 1) or to choose the viewpoint from which they spontaneously formed mental images of the objects (Experiment 2). Niimi and Yokosawa [2] asked 10 Japanese participants to rate the view goodness of 18 common symmetrical objects rotated by 10 different angles from the straight front; they found that the three-quarter views, such as rotated by 27◦ and 45◦ , were rated better than other views.
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