Personal Spaces: 3D Spatial Worlds for Information Exploration, Organisation and Communication

Dealing with information objects in virtual three-dimensional space is a promising approach to successfully exploiting the burgeoning availability of networked information. The design issues inherent in using space for information exploration are described, and some solutions suggested. The main focus of the paper is user exploration of the World Wide Web (Web) and how the design of ‘personal spaces’ could get around some outstanding problems such as providing true multi-threaded navigation support, the backforward problem, and the need of users to casually organise, reorganise, filter and communicate information. A design for a spatial Web users’ environment which addresses many of these issues - StackSpace - is presented. The model is described in some detail at the conceptual level, relating the overall metaphor of personal spaces for exploration to specific topics such as multi-threaded navigation, chronology, currency, customisation and communication. StackSpace is essentially an environment for information explorers rather than providers. To investigate the generality of the organisational model behind StackSpace, it was applied to the problem of information provision. InfraSpace uses the same elements as StackSpace, but attempts to apply them to the design of a spatial version of an existing information service - a public place. Because of the individual, situated needs of information explorers, personal spaces are likely to become an increasingly important element of users’ interactive environments.