(2020-04-13) Palmer Spatial Software

John Palmer on spatial software. When I wrote the original piece last fall ((2019-08-30) Palmer Spatial Interfaces), I thought my thesis would play out gradually, over the next several years. The main update here is less of a thesis change and more of an acceleration in the timeline. While unpredictable and not part of my original thesis, this global pandemic and the social distancing that comes with it are pushing us towards spatial software more forcefully than any of the factors mentioned in the first essay.

things are different right now. We’re constrained to rely almost exclusively on software for social interaction. What are usually minor inconveniences in our existing applications are now the main factor preventing us from fulfilling our social needs.

Because of this, we’ve already leaped into the first phase of the thesis above: spatial software gaining rapid adoption in social applications.

Figma and Second Life are examples of spatial software.

the real, outer world we live in day to day is also characterized by the free movement of bodies and objects within a spatial environment. And all visual interfaces exist within this real world. We can zoom out on our previous diagram. (zooming)

Now we have full context. When we zoom out, we see that the real world and a virtual world are characterized by the same core trait: free movement of bodies and objects in space. A virtual world can also mirror qualities of the real world in ways beyond that.

we now have clear guidelines for thinking about spatial software. Within this framework, there is a spectrum along which all spatial software lies, based on how closely its virtual world mirrors space as it exists in the real world. (mirror world)

On one end of that spectrum are more limited examples, like the app-switching interface in iOS. In the middle of the spectrum are applications like Figma, where the world is an open spatial canvas where objects can be moved freely. Finally, on the more literal end are MMO RPG’s like Second Life or World of Warcraft, where users are given bodies and can move about an environment with landscapes and physics that mirror the real world.

1. Figma

the openness of Figma’s world means it can be used for almost anything. I use it for my job as a product designer, to design software applications, but I also use it to hang out and talk with friends. Others have used Figma for playing games of Pictionary or building virtual towns. I even used Figma with my friends at Blogger Peer Review to brainstorm concepts for this essay.

what if you could deploy a website inside of a Figma file? You could place pages beside, above, or below each other. Visitors could see each others’ cursors while they looked around the site. Or they could zoom out and see an entire website at once

2. Muze

Muze is a spatial chat app. It uses a virtual world very similar to Figma’s. Users can place text, images, art, and gifs onto a vertically expanding canvas

3. Animal Crossing: New Horizons

It’s not just that people have a lot of free time right now; they’re also socially isolated. And the new Animal Crossing isn’t just any popular game. It’s unique in two ways. First, it provides a customizable space to hang out. Second, the point of the game is mostly social, focused on creating your space and spending time in it

The openness of the virtual world is the game’s primary strength. There’s a reason people have used it for everything from weddings to a mini design conference to date nights to surprise birthday parties

Even more than games like Minecraft or Roblox, Animal Crossing has made 3D creation tools really easy to use. Through more constrained options and simpler controls, Animal Crossing makes landscaping a virtual environment easy for anyone. The game has struck a really nice balance between giving the player freedom but keeping some strong constraints.

What will design tools look like in a world where instead of a static webpage, we all have, for example, our own virtual island?

4. Online Town

The main innovation here is the way the game handles audio and video streams between players. Similar to real life, walking closer to someone means you can see and hear them. Walking far away means you can’t. The same behavior exists in Mozilla Hubs, which is a similar app but in 3D.

5. Nototo

This one is actually not social, so it’s a good example of spatial interfaces having explicitly useful qualities outside of social interaction.

Nototo is a spatial note-taking app. It lets you build an ever-expanding, topographical map containing your notes and writing. The app is designed this way to take advantage of another aspect of spatial interfaces: our brains remember spaces better than raw information. In this regard, Nototo is like a software manifestation of a memory palace.

6. Spatial Chatroom

Last week I built my own spatial chatroom app, where users get an avatar and a speech bubble for talking to each other. Within minutes of testing out the app with me, my friends discovered we could play tag for fun, or have little footraces around the map. Behaviors I didn’t design into the app at all. (live chat)

Because spatial software comes with more degrees of freedom, whether to move around or view things differently, there are creative ways of using the software, not just designing it.