ABSTRACT
In Chapter 6 we described the process of building virtual ecologies and outlined general design strategies that are based on two fundamental representational formats (analogies, metaphors) that constitute the building blocks of interface design. In Chapter 7 we described a variety of alternative perspectives that are relevant to the design of these representational forms. In this chapter we narrow our focus to the consideration of one perspective that we have found particularly useful in developing principles of design for the analog geometric forms needed for law-driven domains. That perspective is visual attention and form perception; we will review the concepts that have been developed, the methodologies used to investigate them, the results of some pivotal experimental studies, and alternative interpretations of those results.
