TiltViewer using PaperVision 3D Flash

The Tiltviewer is a cleaver 3D Flickr viewer built using Papervision 3D. Ever since Papervision 3D came on the scene it has become the darling of the Flash community. There have been a great number of excellent applications built using it. The problem with 3D is just because you “can” doesn’t mean you “should”.. the Titltviewer is a good example of this. While the interface is well done, viewing 2D photos on a slight slant doesn’t really enhance the viewing experience – in fact I think it makes alot of the photos hard to view. I once worked with a programmer who told me this: “As interface designers we know we have done our job if the end users don’t notice us at all.” And he is right, any interface that gets between the user and their content is a bad interface. Using 3D has it’s place, but viewing slanted photos from Flickr probably isn’t the place. No slag to the folks who build this app though, it’s well done and an excellent proof of concept.