3D Computer Desktop - Do you need/want it?

There are very few new GUI paradigms that really make me light up. Two that have really caught my attention recently are a multi-tactile display for 2D/3D manipulation (think of the digital displays in Spielberg’s “Minority Report”) and BumpTop’s technology demo for a physics-enabled 3D desktop.

‘3D Desktop’ you say!? Don’t worry, the idea of a 3D desktop is nothing new. 3DNA has been touting their product as a revolutionary desktop interface for years with no obvious success. Quite simply, their idea of a 3D desktop is a first-person shooter VR world with your web-browser and applications stuck all over the walls. C’mon Man! I don’t wanna have to “walk” over to my “Laboratory Folder/Wall” to look stuff up when I can type it in and find it fast with QuickSilver or Spotlight: Not exactly the epitome of “functional navigation.” The fact that you had to shell out $29 for something that would actually reduce your productivity further added insult to injury.

SphereXP actually made a long-term useable product by envisioning your desktop GUI as the inner-surface of a large sphere, from which application windows can be rotated into view, stacked, or sorted using 3D motion and manipulation that would make Apple OS X’s Expose jealous. This made much better sense than 3DNA’s attempt because it put you at the physical center of your data and workflows. The interface was also much cleaner, navigable by a sphere in the lower-right corner of the screen that you’d roll around, much like in 3D design software. Intuitive control and quick access make SphereXP much more than a simple Virtual Window Manager. To further spread the lovin’ in the community, they made it freely available. UPDATE: SphereXP is actually $29.90, and they also have a web-browser only product called SphereXPlorer which is only $19.90.

Recently, however, I saw a technology demo that literally made me covet the software. BumpTop is a demo on XP software that creates a 3D computer desktop that more accurately mimics the way you would naturally work with papers, books and files on a physical desktop. Toss a folder or file icon and it will skitter across the 3D surface, knocking other documents or folders in the way. More than just a physics demo carried over to the desktop GUI, however, BumpTop provides some very natural organizational methods for sorting through, finding and viewing files the way you might with the real things in your hands. Instead of “folders” you would stack items into “piles” either neatly, or with varying orientations to signify importance (like a manager placing a particular resume at an angle in a pile to look at later). It’s all very difficult to put into words, so I strongly recommend you check out the Demo movie they have published online.

Sadly, BumpTop is not currently available for the public, although as an academic experiment it has already been shown at a tech conference and as a Master’s Thesis. They are currently seeking software developers to make BumpTop into a full-blown shell replacement for Windows users. Unless Steve Jobs buys ‘em up to place in Mac OS X.