Innovations in desktop design don’t come along very often — which is what makes Sun Microsystem’s “Project Looking Glass” so intriguing. In their system, each window is represented as a 3D object, kind of like a thin piece of wood. To minimize them, you can spin them sideways; they’re identified by a few words on the thin side of the panel. As their web site describes it:

In the prototype, windows displaying applications are no longer stacked upon each other with flat icons and buttons to represent them; they are viewed in a 3D environment and manipulated as 3D objects. We are moving beyond the boundaries of old environments to revolutionize the use of the desktop.

I’ve always been kind of skeptical of 3D-like interfaces — I actually think the paper-and-file model is pretty intuitive. But one of the things that’s particularly nifty about Sun’s concept is that you can spin a window around — such as a web page or PDF file — and write notes on the back of it, like a photograph. Check it out here, the second-from-bottom link: It’s kind of hard to visualize unless you see a screenshot.

Still, if I wanted to truly design a groundbreaking interface, I wouldn’t go to the computer industry. I’d hire a bunch of designers from the video-game industry. The interfaces for most games these days are infinitely better and more intuitive than anything on a computer.

(Thanks to Jeremy for this one!)