Our brains are hard-wired to assume light comes from above, and 3D "pop out" from shading even means we can identify the shapes faster. More info and references in this section from Mind Hacks (I was a co-author):
(It briefly mentions Susan Kare's work who designed the first 3D buttons in Windows 3.0 -- 1990!)
There's another effect going on here which is visual affordances: not only does the button "pop out" but we immediately see it as something we can push. That's from the psychologist James Gibson in 1977.
There are a ton of cognitive quirks that are useful to know when designing interfaces. The pop-out effect is one of my favourites.
#20 Fool Yourself into Seeing 3D -https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=K6bjvFUcedgC&pg=PA57&dq=...
(It briefly mentions Susan Kare's work who designed the first 3D buttons in Windows 3.0 -- 1990!)
There's another effect going on here which is visual affordances: not only does the button "pop out" but we immediately see it as something we can push. That's from the psychologist James Gibson in 1977.
There are a ton of cognitive quirks that are useful to know when designing interfaces. The pop-out effect is one of my favourites.