One possible ChandlerView^? would be a 3D representation of electronic mail.

Many people would probably find this View to be terribly difficult to deal with, but some people might like it a lot.

Imagine a 3D-space filled with cubes that represent messages.

• The size of each cube is proportional to the size of the body of the message in KB. Attachments are shown as satellites to the main message. They, too, have a radius proportional to the size of the document, but at a much different scale (so that they don't completely overwhelm the message-body-sphere).

• The z dimension represents age. Older message cubes are at the back, newer message cubes are at the front. The X and Y dimensions of a message correspond to who the message is from and what the subject is. (In order to keep related messages together, you might want the "sender" axis to be actually a "sender group" axis, with "sender" an alphabetical sub-ordering inside "sender group". See my previous posts on categories...)

• The cubes' color can also convey information. You have up to four dimensions of color to play with: {red/green/blue} or {hue/saturation/value} and reflectivity. Saturation or value seem to make sense for age: as a message cube gets older, it gets "duller".

• You could also use hue to represent (possibly redundantly) the message's category or how the message is addressed (TO you, TO you and others, CC you, CC you and others, or BCC).

• You could put photos of the sender on facing side of the cube.

• You could put a country flag to show which domain the message came from. (With a $ for .com, an Uncle Same for .gov, a tank for .mil, a diploma for .edu, and a blue circle/white "i" for .info?)

-- DuckySherwood - 09 Dec 2002