Little Big Planet

In LittleBigPlanet 1

The player Sackboy man's the Pod, a cardboard 'spaceship' that revolves around the planet. Behind the spaceship are three planets, the Little Big Planet itself, "My Moon", the level creation section, and the "Info Moon", a place where you can find your PSN friends and join/request them, your stats, and some level suggestions from Media Molecule.
 
The player navigates the planet as a sort of level select by using a DualShock 3 controller. The patches on the planet roughly represent the themes of the level. Like a patch over England has levels featuring medieval themes, or patches over Asia represent feudal settings.
 
When making a level for the planet, the creator can choose many different themes that match the places on the planet from the single player game. They often are depicted as human-sized scaling, making sack-people look small in comparison.
The creator also has three walking layers and 4 thin layers to create with. Materials for creating can range from sponge and metals to wood and stone. All materials also go with respected themes sans a few standard/default materials.
 
When online in LBP1, the planet acts as pages for levels or DLC. Level positioning no longer has merit, as a creator can put their levels anywhere. Their curator icon/avatar is auto-positioned in the middle of their levels.

In LittleBigPlanet for PSP

On the PSP, Sackboy is no longer usable during the planet menu navigation. The menu options are the Little Big Planet for story and DLC, the Pod which is for character customization and news, "My Moon" for your levels, and the "Community Moon" for other user's levels.
 
The planet's level navigation is the same as the PS3 counterparts. The level placement is roughly the same as where it would take place.
 
In game, there are only 2 walking layers and 3 thin layers to create and play in.

In LittleBigPlanet 2

The Pod returns along with the DualShock 3 controller for Sackboy to navigate with. When in the menus, the camera zooms more towards the planets, almost out of the pod itself, to help with navigation visibility.

The levels, as well as having position similarities like the previous game, take place over different settings and mixtures of time. Areas like Techno Renaissance, Neon Propaganda, and Designer Organic. Thus, when selecting levels, the planet changes visuals to match the time settings.
 
The planet doesn't only change like this for single player levels. A level creator can change their planet's appearance any time. Then, when another player views their levels or profile on the system, the planet changes into the one they created.