Using information Rings in Information Rooms

Visualization is Key

The most important consideration when using ring structures in an information room is the range of vision of the Avatar.  View points originate in the center of the room may be stacked creating different vistas from different platforms along the "Y" axis. This is important to the relevance of  information content information in each ring.  Where two rings have related content the view point of the avatar should include both rings.  This is governed py the size of the ring and verticle distance between the rings. Visibility of content is controled by the placement of central platforms and the up and down movement of the avatar along the "Y" axis.

Let's start with an overhead view of an information room using ring structures.

As stated earlier, a seeker on a quest for information is all about looking and not about navigating. The seeker needs less key strokes to look not more.  For this reason, the seeker in an information room should be in the center of a circle so as to surround him with choices.  This placement allows the use of the left and right arrow key to spin around left or right.  If a spin is continuous all information selections will repeat.  While this is useful for a single plane of view it is restricted to the vision window the user has on his monitor.  It is a bit like the window on a tank great forward look no side view.

The ability to move up and down allows for additional rings of information at various altitudes.

This example shows an arrangement of text and picture objects in information rings at various altitudes.

We will now look at the structure from the user point of view.  This first view is from the vantage point of the first and lowest level.  The user can see picture ring 1 and text ring 1 in the picture.

In this next picture the user has moved up a level.  Notice that picture one ring is no longer clearly visible but text rings 1,2 and 3 are visible along with picture ring 2.  As you can see new information is available while part of the last set is still visible.

As the use goes up to another higher platform all picture rings are no longer visible but text ring 3 from the last set and a new text ring 4 appears.

Finally, on the last and highest platform the user can only access text ring 5.

As you can see there is a large amount of information available through the use of only three operations: the left and right turn and a click to go up.  Clearly the key strokes necessary to use the room are very simple and do not distract from the seekers quest by imposing distracting key use.

Careful planing is necessary to insure the the masking and discovery of information rings allows the user to refine the search so that each ring has a logical flow by category class or type.  Also the choice font and colors should be considered as important information triggers.