>>I liked the title "VisitorVille"!
>>Maybe the only place in IT where the imagination can be set free are realtime applications. I have seen pipeline monitoring systems and radar/ultrasound monitors in the energy sector that look like consoles in sci-fi feature films. But - I remember StarTrek TNG - and some of the "data" services were cool too.
>>The "FInal Fantasy" and recent incarnations of "Matrix" had some really cool stuff.
>>Is there such a thing as a "stateless" data GUI paradigm? That may the real question.

I don't think we're quite technologically up to a matrix style interface. And I'm not sure how I feel about having a rod shoved into my brain :) But yes sci fi has some cool interfaces.

But... you sparked another idea. Photography also has some concepts that apply specifically the concept of subject. When you go to shoot a photo the first question you should ask yourself is, what is the "Subject." The next step is to decide how to draw the viewers attention to the subject. The simplest is to put the subject up front and large in the picture. For an interface this might be the top of the form.

I also bring this up, because it gets a bit into philosophically what you seem to be searching for here. When you are doing photography you follow some very basic rules.
And if you follow them you produce excellent photographs.

Here's the kicker, you can shoot a hundred photographs of "happy children" and you will wind up with a hundred pictures of "happy children." However... if you are really good and apply the rules correctly, you will eventually wind up with a photo that doesn't just show "happy children" it shows "Happiness" In other words it transcends the subject and shows the concept itself. This is the difference between a good photograph and a great photograph.

So... how do we achieve that in an interface...

I think we first have to figure out what the real rules are. I gave one, "the Icon has
to communicate something." That actually can be extended to most of the elements of the interface.

Familiarity or reality is also important, the interface has to have enough familiarity to the user for him to be able to relate to it. The green screens with the dropping characters in the Matrix look cool, but I don't think I could use that interface, I wouldn't have a clue what to do with it, I wouldn't know what it was trying to communicate. There is no point of familiarity in it for me to get started with. VisitorVille shows this off quite well, the interface is totally foreign for a computer, I've never seen it done before. But we are all familiar with the concept of a city, so it works.

So there are some basic rules and useful techniques to follow just like photography and a great interface is going to follow and use them. And just like photography your not going to get a great or timeless photo every time you click the shutter. But, if you start with the easy stuff and apply the rules and keep working at it eventually you will come up with a few that are truly exceptional.

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I'm begging to feel a bit like I'm lecturing here, as I said earlier... I'm just thinking out loud. Hopefully someone out there is finding this prattle useful :)

Oh and I'm still trying to wrap my head around a '"stateless" data GUI paradigm'