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Could we make the web more immersive using a simple optical illusion?

shopify.github.io

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Re: Could we make the web more immersive using a simple optical illusion?

#261

Post by screamingninja »

dreen wrote: post #106
bm3719 wrote: post #5

Can't help but notice that we keep wanting to make content that should be flat more 3D (e.g., animated 3D backgrounds, scroll filler on corporate pages, the entire metaverse), and content that could benefit from being 3D more flat (like UI buttons losing their pseudo-3D bevels and not looking like interactive widgets at all).

Exactly, it violates The Toilet Principle, which states that most of the time, the user of your app wants to do the thing they came to do, then get on with their life.

Wait until you see a 3D Immersive Toilet...

Re: Could we make the web more immersive using a simple optical illusion?

#262

Post by noduerme »

threatofrain wrote: post #113
noduerme wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See, me personally, this is what I want in my medical device software. Gimme the data. I'll learn the six different modes for each button, and fly through that shit to find what I want. Sadly, we're training people to live with less control and a shallower understanding by presenting everything in these slim little interfaces. Minimalism elides .

> See, me personally, this is what I want in my medical device software. Minimalism is a major factor for cognitive accessibility. If you build for the lowest common denominator then of course qualities like control must necessarily take a dive. If Google gave you more controls for search then it'd be better search, but then it wouldn't be as minimal anymore. On software you have lots of room to hide complexity for t…

Hah. There's truth to that, but just on a tangent, it got me thinking about the hardware of my youth versus the hardware of today. Like, when I was 8, the coolest thing to me was calculator watches. They had either 3 or 4 rows of rubber buttons, or the fancy ones had flat buttons. They weren't trying to hide their interface under a flat screen, right? They were going out of their way to give you lots of stuff to play with. They had different modes; you could cycle through stopwatches and alarms and little 1-line memos and addresses. They encouraged you to read the owner's manual that came with them.

Those systems taught people how to use them, and didn't necessarily sacrifice everything to a series of wizard screens. I think somewhere around the point where design decisions started being made to help onboard people into a piece of software or hardware faster, we lost the joy of digging deep in the user manual and finding cool shit.

Re: Could we make the web more immersive using a simple optical illusion?

#263

Post by boudin »

There was at least TrackIR providing that back then https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrackIR

I remember having tried on plane simulators back then and, even if it was cool as a technology, it wasn't really useful on a computer as you simply don't move your eyes and head enough. If you do, the screen is out of your field of vision. For this to work well, the screen would either need to be massive and curved or move as you move your head.

Re: Could we make the web more immersive using a simple optical illusion?

#264

Post by AYBABTME »

icepat wrote: post #151
codeulike wrote: post #141

Imagine, for example, opening your favorite brand’s website and being presented with a miniature virtual storefront. You could look at their most popular products as if you were standing on a sidewalk peering into their shop. I imagined this as instructed as was simultaneously bored and depressed. Why does it always have to be about shopping.

> Why does it always have to be about shopping. It's published by Shopify, so in this case it's because it likely would not have gotten published otherwise. Unfortunately E-commerce companies are not known for their "research for the fun of research".

Disagree, VR stuff at Shopify really strikes me and a lot of folks as a pet project with unlikely business outcome but they still do it for the kick of it.

Re: Could we make the web more immersive using a simple optical illusion?

#265

Post by icepat »

AYBABTME wrote: post #264
icepat wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why does it always have to be about shopping. It's published by Shopify, so in this case it's because it likely would not have gotten published otherwise. Unfortunately E-commerce companies are not known for their "research for the fun of research".

Disagree, VR stuff at Shopify really strikes me and a lot of folks as a pet project with unlikely business outcome but they still do it for the kick of it.

How so? Their VR and the Web page on their website has mention of products in the first line?

https://www.shopify.com/partners/blog/building-a-vr-shopping...

Re: Could we make the web more immersive using a simple optical illusion?

#266

Post by nottorp »

peeters wrote: post #255
nottorp wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can't help but wonder "how will this be used to advertise to me?" Or lie to you? VR storefront eh? Bet the product will look a lot better than it actually does in real life.

I mean, that's true today. I'm sure you've seen plenty of shops egregiously misrepresenting the sizes of products via forced perspective or outright editing in images. If they were to upload a 3D model it would only get more difficult to mislead about the physical characteristics of the product.

You think theyd Upload it unedited? :)

Re: Could we make the web more immersive using a simple optical illusion?

#268

Post by [deleted] »

riidom wrote: post #149
codeulike wrote: post #141

Imagine, for example, opening your favorite brand’s website and being presented with a miniature virtual storefront. You could look at their most popular products as if you were standing on a sidewalk peering into their shop. I imagined this as instructed as was simultaneously bored and depressed. Why does it always have to be about shopping.

I imagine a youtube where the ads would pause as soon as you don't look at them anymore. Like that one black mirror episode. But yes, first promote some gimmicky fun stuff to get the foot in the door and when it has arrived, show the real face.

[deleted]

Re: Could we make the web more immersive using a simple optical illusion?

#269

Post by mabbo »

jerojero wrote: post #257
mabbo wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's important to remember that Shopify doesn't have a singular ad product. It's a platform to build a web store on, and merchants can add whatever they want to their shop, but Shopify doesn't collect any data across shops. That's the shop's data, not Shopify's. Bias: my team at Shopify helps merchants launch their shop and get their initial sales.

Does Shopify have a sales team? Does Shopify have a marketing team? What's a more likely and more powerful pitch that the marketing team could use to better increase sales of the Shopify platform given this tool they've developed: 1. You can make your stores more FUN! With this little funny tool. 2. You can have more accurate tracking data on what your user is looking at at every moment when they're browsing your web…

I think it's disingenuous to compare an online store platform to a gun manufacturer.

What I'm saying is that individual stores can track their customers however they like, but that there isn't an overall tracking system across all stores.

Shopify's selling feature is that your data is your own. Your customer data is your own and not used by Shopify. That's the competitive advantage over Amazon, who will look at your sales data and use it to compete against you.

It would be penny-wise but pound-foolish to do what you suggest.

Re: Could we make the web more immersive using a simple optical illusion?

#270

Post by jerojero »

mabbo wrote: post #269
jerojero wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does Shopify have a sales team? Does Shopify have a marketing team? What's a more likely and more powerful pitch that the marketing team could use to better increase sales of the Shopify platform given this tool they've developed: 1. You can make your stores more FUN! With this little funny tool. 2. You can have more accurate tracking data on what your user is looking at at every moment when they're browsing your web…

I think it's disingenuous to compare an online store platform to a gun manufacturer. What I'm saying is that individual stores can track their customers however they like, but that there isn't an overall tracking system across all stores. Shopify's selling feature is that your data is your own. Your customer data is your own and not used by Shopify. That's the competitive advantage over Amazon, who will look at your…

I don't think it's disingenuous? Gun manufacturers develop guns that gun stores buy to sell to people, Shopify develops tools to track people that they sell to business owners. The gun can be be bought by an individual that can do good or bad. Same for Shopify.

Shopify is developing tools that can be used to do harm or to do good. But when they develop tools they know will be used for surveillance, then they can't just wash their hands away. There is responsibility there. Shopify knows how people are using the tools they are creating.

I think facilitating independent shops is positive, but developing more and more tracking functionality to get these shops to be "data driven" is harmful to society. Although that seems to be "the market pull", a lot of times the most ethical choice is not necessarily the most profitable one. Shopify wants to compete with Amazon and they believe a good way of doing that is offering their customers (business owners) better ways to track their customers (shoppers).

All you're doing is giving a third party the gun and your justification seems to be "well if we don't do it, they'll get their guns from amazon anyway". Who owns the data matters, I agree, and I commend Shopify for that, but it's a problematic trend that is being facilitated by these tools anyway. I mean, we should get rid of the guns, not go "we need more good guys with guns". That's my opinion at least.

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