The paper introduces the Cone Tree, an Information Visualization technique for visualizing hierarchical information structures in 3D. The authors, George G. Robertson, Jock D. Mackinlay, and Stuart K. Card, from Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, describe how 3D visualization and interactive animation can help manage and access large information spaces. The Cone Tree is designed to maximize screen space and enable the visualization of the entire structure, while interactive animation reduces cognitive load by leveraging the human perceptual system. Key features of Cone Trees include: - **3D Layout**: Hierarchies are laid out uniformly in three dimensions, with nodes represented as cones. - **Interactive Animation**: Rotations of the tree are animated to help users understand substructure relationships. - **User Perceptions**: The 3D perspective provides a fisheye view, enhanced depth perception through lighting and shadows, and interactive animation reduces cognitive load. - **Additional Operations**: Users can perform pruning and growing operations to focus on specific substructures, dynamically rearrange the tree, and search through underlying information. The authors provide examples of applications where Cone Trees are effective, such as file browsers, organizational structure browsers, and company operating plans. They conclude that interactive animation and 3D visualization can significantly improve the management and access of large information spaces, but formal user studies are needed to verify and expand these conclusions.The paper introduces the Cone Tree, an Information Visualization technique for visualizing hierarchical information structures in 3D. The authors, George G. Robertson, Jock D. Mackinlay, and Stuart K. Card, from Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, describe how 3D visualization and interactive animation can help manage and access large information spaces. The Cone Tree is designed to maximize screen space and enable the visualization of the entire structure, while interactive animation reduces cognitive load by leveraging the human perceptual system. Key features of Cone Trees include: - **3D Layout**: Hierarchies are laid out uniformly in three dimensions, with nodes represented as cones. - **Interactive Animation**: Rotations of the tree are animated to help users understand substructure relationships. - **User Perceptions**: The 3D perspective provides a fisheye view, enhanced depth perception through lighting and shadows, and interactive animation reduces cognitive load. - **Additional Operations**: Users can perform pruning and growing operations to focus on specific substructures, dynamically rearrange the tree, and search through underlying information. The authors provide examples of applications where Cone Trees are effective, such as file browsers, organizational structure browsers, and company operating plans. They conclude that interactive animation and 3D visualization can significantly improve the management and access of large information spaces, but formal user studies are needed to verify and expand these conclusions.