2D canvases have a whole dimension spare, so why not make it semantically rich? Here's a 3D "underlay" in @tldraw — 2D control plane, 3D feedback.
Depth + movement makes a whole class of information legible.
https://github.com/OrionReed/tldraw-3d
a thread 🧵(1/n)
The examples here are simple, but interesting:
1. Edges which curve in 3D means you can locally approximate their length, no need to zoom out, you can see if they're near or far.
2. By projecting shapes into the distance, you can see what's nearby just from the background.
(2/n)
You can embed time in the 3rd dimension, too:
1. you could show local shape history by projecting its past transformations
2. you could show possible futures by projecting the results of actions, like "this align function will move the shapes in this way."
(3/n)
Sidenote: There's some interesting work on "feedforward" mechanisms by Joseph Malloch, Wendy Mackay, and others in this paper https://inria.hal.science/hal-01614267/document
(4/n)
The interesting thing is not "let's do everything in 3D" but instead noting that we can coordinate 3D space with a 2D environment. 3D doesn't mean FPS camera controls.
Perspective can communicate *some* information more effectively, so why not use it when that's the case?
(5/n)
I think our computing environments should make available all the things which are (abstractly) valid constructions — pluralism, not a rote notion of efficiency.
In mathematics you can solve an "impossible" geometry problem by translating to topology where the answer may be trivial, then back again. It's not highways, it's a well-connected network of possible transformations.
Computers are poor at this, but they don't have to be.
(6/n)
I want a computing where what matters is a kind of connectivity, not "does it go fast" but "can it get there"
When a series of transformations or relations becomes widely used, it can develop into a more direct, 'optimal' path.
(7/n)
Bit of a tangent at the end there... Anyways, you can play with the 3d underlay here.
Orion Reed
John Christensen