Project Looking Glass - a new 3d interface that the world donīt need?
After some failed attempts by others SUN is trying to pull the 3d interface. Nice and shiny 3 dimensional cds and "true 3d icons" on our 2d screens - just what I have been waiting for - more clutter. Is this really what we need for a better computing experience? Is the 3rd dimension the saviour of our screen estate. I look at the picture and I think, great for playing around but can I do work with it better faster and be better organized because I have CDīs in front of me instead of words. Its the whole "an picture says a thousand word but a word can say more then a thousand pictures" discussion that we can talk about until the end of the world. GUI or CLI - 2d or 2.5d - real photos or icons.
In my search for the word hotsauce I came across some old and new friendly website given you some indepth understanding why 3d (2.5d) interface are not the future you want to have and while you are at it you can check out a 3d filesystem interface for OSX.
some more links:
the one and only nooface.com
3D Interfaces to Hypermedia Information Spaces
"great" slides about designing 3d interfaces
3d - a new paradigm for user intefaces? some slides
3D Graphical User Interfaces for Web Pages - gosh I wish sometimes they look at the stuff they publish
and another link to the defunctional apple hotsauce project