Virtual Galleries: Is 3D better?

摘要

Online virtual galleries have been available since the inception of the World Wide Web, mostly in two-dimensional format. More recently, advances in technology have given rise to three-dimensional virtual galleries. There have been relatively few comparative studies done on the effectiveness of two- and three-dimensional environments as hosts for virtual galleries. We have undertaken a comparative study in order to assess the differences between the two types of environments, looking particularly at recreational and educational value to novice users. Navigation is a problem largely associated with three-dimensional environments for novice users. Our study also looked at whether the level of navigational aid in a three-dimensional environment would affect these two factors. Templates of African art galleries were designed for our application to generate three virtual galleries: one was two-dimensional and the other two were three-dimensional, with each gallery varying in the level of navigational aid provided. Results of user studies indicate that visitors to the gallery that had a higher level of navigational support were more likely to explore the gallery and enjoyed themselves more than in the other galleries. The two-dimensional gallery was found to be more suitable for educational purposes as visitors tended to read more information about the artwork than in the other three-dimensional galleries.