When you’re struggling to manage your finances, you can feel like you’re lost in a maze.

Fortunately, two technology companies have a map to get you out of the labyrinth. Even better, that map is in 3D.

StockSmart, in collaboration with CyberLightning, Ltd., is beta-testing what it calls “visual finance” apps for both desktop computers and mobile devices. They expect to release the apps starting in March 2013.

According to CyberLightning’s “3D Internet evangelist,” Jani Pirkola, 3D visualization is a great way for consumers to master complex data sets.

“Combined with StockSmart's comprehensive and powerful financial analytics, a 3D-world view is the basis for investors to better understand their portfolios and make informed decisions,” Pinkola explained.

By nature, financial data is 3D. Think of a company’s stock price to earnings (p/e) ratio. As a figure, the ratio is two-dimensional. You know the number, but you don’t know how it compares to other companies in the industry.

Instead of getting a bar graph or another representation of p/e ratio, imagine yourself standing in a neighborhood. The buildings around you represent a series of companies. To know how each company’s p/e ratio compares to the others’, you compare the heights of the buildings.

That’s how Aqumin constructed its 3D financial app back in 2010. In addition to the height of buildings, the Aqumin neighborhood explains information like market capitalization and price difference by varying other building characteristics like color.

For more detailed information about a company, you simply click on a building and explore it in depth.

As a result, whether you’re a consumer or an analyst who needs to make investment decisions, you have everything you need to know about a company at a glance. You can skip looking at pages of tables or graphs or clicking between multiple websites.

StockSmart and CyberLightning haven’t commented on the planned look of their apps, but they’ve recognized that financial decisions are multi-dimensional.

“Accurate, easy-to-interpret information is the basis of smart, knowledge-based and timely decision making,” stated StockSmart CEO Suzanne Cook. “This collaboration will help people gain intuitive understanding of their investment portfolio and market dynamics.”