Method of providing aerial perspective in a graphical user interface

An article comprising:

• a machine readable medium having a plurality of machine readable instructions, wherein when the instructions are executed by a processor, the instructions cause modification of appearance characteristics of a first display object, the appearance characteristics comprising at least one of brightness, contrast, and clarity, the first display object transitioning from an active to an inactive state, thereby making the first display object appear farther from a user than at least one other display object, by defining a region of an image portrayed by the first display object, determining an average value of pixels of the region, replacing values of pixels of the region in the first display object with the average value, and repeating the defining, determining, and replacing actions for all regions of the first display object;
• and modification of appearance characteristics of a second display object, the second display object transitioning from the inactive state to the active state, thereby making the second display object appear closer to the user than at least the first display object.