3D data and 3D UML

An interesting and experimental idea: The ability to design three-dimensional models using UML. This idea is shard among some visionary coders who have already demonstrated the ability to model UML in a 3D model space. Diagram elements can be layered, placed, and rotated in a three-dimensional manor. Glasshouse is another cutting edge GUI for visualizing relational data sets. Users can use SQL or spreadsheet data as input, and Glasshouse will present the user as an avatar within a 3D environment. The avatar then acts as a the user within the data environment, allowing the user to manipulate the data in an interactive way never seen before. The remaining question is, what is wrong with the current standard 2D visualization of data and UML models today?

The answer is that there is nothing inherently wrong with viewing data in two dimensions. The same holds true with UML models. Before the graphical user interface, common on most desktops today, there was the command line. There is also nothing inherently wrong with the command line. However, the GUI was invented for a reason, so that human users can quickly comprehend what is displayed in front of them. Trying to grasp a relational data set that is displayed in the console is possible, although it would most likely take a seasoned professional two weeks to understand it fully. If that same data set is presented graphically, many more features become available such as moving windows around etc. With a GUI it might take that same professional a day or less to fully understand the data. Now, imagine trying to display, edit, and understand a modest UML diagram in the console. For humans understanding data, the GUI was the a big fist step and understanding UML models followed shortly. The next step is another dimension.

The Glasshouse project is good example of how this first 3D data manipulation interface might be taken. Insights about data sets will most likely be made possible that never were before. Users much more freedom in the perspective in which they view the data. Will the UML be able to follow this direction? Some tools have already started by making individual diagrams rotatable and stackable within the modeling space. This is where the 3D functionality in the UML ends. There is currently no tool that offers 3D UML elements such as classes, objects, or interactions. Could avatars be used as actors in use cases? For instance, when simulating a use case realization, the avatar (the actor) could actually move about in the collaboration among the other 3D UML elements. An instance of some class could expand and contract in three dimensions according to how many resources it is using.

These are some incredibly complex design challenges to implement. Building a two dimensional UML modeling tool is by no means trivial. Building three dimensional interfaces are also not trivial. Combining the two could take decades just to get a functional demo working. Is something like this worth the effort? Would this new UML 3D modeling interface produce better software, faster? In the end, this amounts to a tough decision to make because of the risk involved. But that hasn't stopped other ingenious software projects from being built in the past.