Spatial user interaction refers to interactions that use spatial attributes or spatial relations between entities to trigger system functions. Spatial user interaction can offer intuitive interactions between users and their environment, particularly in ubiquitous environments where interconnected objects are in constant interaction. Many research works demonstrated the relevance of the spatial user interaction paradigm. Nevertheless, only a few were conducted to standardize the necessary concepts for designing spatial applications and to propose software tools that support spatial user interaction. The present work reviews the literature for spatial user interaction design and development. It analyses papers dealing with applications supporting spatial user interaction. It shows a lack of generic tools for designing/developing applications supporting spatial user interactions and proposes directions for future research work in this field.