I'm interested in what happened when I only partially folded the items.
What's intriguing about using 3D this way is that, like a zoomable user interface, it can reduce the visual space that lower priority visual items take up but still hint at their semantic meaning.
However, I also noticed the supposedly less important information actually looks more interesting than the top-level content (which is flat on the screen), and so it became a distraction and backfired.
If you like that idea, you might like the Perspective Wall (CHI '91) by Mackinlay, Robertson and Card. Abstract:
"""
Tasks that involve large information spaces overwhelm workspaces that do not support efficient use of space and time. For example, case studies indicate that information often contains linear components, which can result in 2D layouts with wide, inefficient aspect rations. This paper describes a technique called Perspective Wall for visualizing linear information by smoothly integrating detailed and contextual views. It uses hardware support for 3D interactive animation to fold wide 2D layouts into intuitive 3D visualizations that have a center panel for detail and two perspective panels for context. The resulting visualization supports efficient use of space and time.
"""
What's intriguing about using 3D this way is that, like a zoomable user interface, it can reduce the visual space that lower priority visual items take up but still hint at their semantic meaning.
However, I also noticed the supposedly less important information actually looks more interesting than the top-level content (which is flat on the screen), and so it became a distraction and backfired.