Design Guidelines for Hybrid 2D/3D User Interfaces on Tablet Devices A User Experience Evaluation

Abstract — There is a growing proliferation of 3D based applications in tablet devices, but there is a lack of studies evaluating user experiences of these user interfaces. In particular, most of these applications use a mix of overlaid 2D controls and embedded 3D controls for user interactions and there is little current understanding on how users perceive and experience these controls. This paper presents the results of a user experience evaluation made for the user interface of four 3D applications running on two different tablet devices. A number of results are obtained. First, the results show that users wish that applications had less 2D overlaid icons and more space for touch gesture interactions. Second, the number of on screen control elements complicates the activity and provides a more disappointing experience. Third, avatar control was difficult as there were no tips or clear cues on how to use them. Fourth, users expected to control and interact with the applications by using direct touch gestures in the 3D space. As a result, design guidelines for hybrid 2D/3D user interfaces were created. Keywords-3D; hybrid; tablet; user experience; user interface I