About Fractal Maps

Background

Existing interfaces are outdated and inadequate to the increasing demands of time-constrained users. Such interfaces have traditionally been closely associated with the operating systems that they run on - typically Windows or Macintosh - and the limitations of the interface have been overlooked or simply accepted as a non-negotiable part of the package.

On a computer screen, however, more than 20 or 30 items displayed simultaneously tends to cause problems with understanding and recognition. Clearly monitor screens do not offer the scope or range of human eyesight; but even within the confines of the screen, there must be a better way of arranging information in order to aid recognition and understanding.

This was the challenge that Fractal:Edge had to meet: to find an improved way of representing large information structures on screen, to make large quantities of data visible and comprehensible at one time and in one place. This is self-evident: in normal daylight the average human can, without effort or stress, identify and understand millions of discrete items within the field of his or her vision.

Existing two-dimensional interfaces such as those employed by Windows, or those which rely on a landscape metaphor do not appear to have the required power. On the other hand, potentially attractive three-dimensional interfaces cannot be manipulated efficiently by means of an essentially two-dimensional mechanism - a mouse and screen.