l i q u i d . b r o w s i n g _ 1 . 0


in brief.
liquid browsing is a very important interaction technology
originating from the "iworld" knowledge browsing concept.
the so called "liquid 2D scatter space" is one of the many
visual interactive spaces (ispaces) of the iworld visualzation
modules.



it has it's greatest strength in comparing a lot of information
objects at the same time by making it possible to perceive
very high information densities with up to 7 quality dimensions
simultaneously (focus and context).

this is achieved mainly by optimizing visual interactive details
and introducing liquid browsing as an interaction method
to solve the overlapping problem of interactive 2D scatter graphs.

first empirical studies show, that L2DSS can improve knowledge
browsing efficiency greatly and can be used in a wide range of
applications (like file systems, media libraries, map browsing,
email,...in principle: wherever we use sortable lists or table views
today...(more than 90% of our knowledge based applications).
the more items you need to see (or the smaller the screenspace
you have), the more helpful L2DSS will be.

it’s ability to effortlessly adapt to different screen sizes and
allowing very high information densities makes it especially
interesting for mobile applications.

if you wonder about the "aqua-look" of our prototypes:
they were optimized for a presentation at WWDC 2003 for
apple computer in san francisco.

see it.
a good start is to see this movie (quicktime, size: 7MB).
you will see the flash prototype (see "use it") in action, which
is very important because the UI is highly motion-based.

feel it.
here is a little interface example in flash, that let's you
play aroud with the parameters of the "liquid"-effect:



(just browse around...by klicking you can simulate a
pen_pressure_change...also try different values and have
a look at our curious presets ;-)

this was one of our first prototypes and it was still not
working too well. you will find much more advanced
algorithms in some of our "use it" prototypes.

try it.
 to get a better felling for it you can test this flash prototype.
it can read and visualize XML datasets. this example reads an XML
of the 250 best movies of this planet (Internet Movie Database: IMDb).

(please note: this prototype is from 2003 and is not the state of the
art implementation. but maybe it is good to get a feeling for the concept.
soon (late 2006) you will be able to use our new java based application
for multidimensional metadata browsing called "liquefire".
use it.
we are very proud to announce, that in a few days (on 08.07.2006)
we will have our first LiquidBrowsing based FileSystemTool ready
for download: it will be called "Liquifile 1.0" and will be available for
9,90 USD (about 7,77 EUR) shareware fee.

we are using the liquid browsing possibilities in a very reduced way here,
to keep the learning curve small and offer a very finder-like behavior.

this is the logo:



first small steps into reality. let the interface revolution roll!! ;-)

cite it.
for more sophisticated insights, download the scientific papers here:

title: "mobile liquid 2D scatter spaces"
(published at the "IEEE InfoViz Conference 2004" in london):

- design version (PDF, 920k)
- IEEE-compliant version (PDF, 1100k)


title: "liquid 2D scatter space for file system browsing"
(published at the "IEEE InfoViz Conference 2005" in london):

- IEEE-compliant version (PDF, 780k)


comment it.
if you have questions and comments, please mail to:
c.waldeck at liquiverse.com