A caveat about the whole urge to make UIs look three-dimensional: it takes more caution to prevent screwing up. More so than with a two-dimensional style, we c

A caveat about the whole urge to make UIs look three-dimensional: it takes more caution to prevent screwing up. More so than with a two-dimensional style, we catch subtle visual miscues and dislike them. Things must be consistent: every 3D widget needs to appear to have the same light source and be plausibly oriented to each other, just as a start. The need for visual consistency sets up a tight coupling in 3D designs. For instance, take the OS X Leopard dock, which went from a minimally 3D background that icons "laid" on to a much more 3D table on which icons "stood". Icons designed for the old dock looked wrong in the new dock.