DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds

1. DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds Week 3 Session 6pm – 9pm Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 Owen Macindoe and Kathryn Merrick DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, August 2007

2. Announcements • Please log on to Second Life now! • Joe is here to help us with any problems • Anyone who was new last week has now been assigned a group • Please check the course web page DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, August 2007

3. Overview • A sense of place and presence in virtual worlds • Task 1: An Impossible Social Space • Catching up on tutorials DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, August 2007

4. Place and Presence in Virtual Worlds Two papers: • Kalay, Y. & Marx. J. (2001), "Architecture and the Internet: Designing Places in Cyberspace“ • Champion, E. & Bharat, D. (2002), “Where is this place?” DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, August 2007

5. Place Versus Space From Kalay and Marx (2001): • “A place is a space activated by social interactions and invested with culturally based understandings of behavioural appropriateness” • A space is a mere location DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, August 2007

6. Qualities of Place Qualities of place: • Socially shared setting • Uniqueness • Physical and conceptual connections • Historical context • Meaning interpreted by inhabitants DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, August 2007

7. Making Places Functional appropriateness: • Fit between spaces, objects, and activities, • Empirical character • Spatial focus • Affordances Conceptual appropriateness: • Fit between form, activities, and expectations • Subjective character • Historical and cultural reference DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, August 2007

8. How is it Done? Design methods: • Borrowing from previous examples • Analogy using architecture as the metaphor • Virtual character opens other possibilities DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, August 2007

9. The Real and the Virtual • Hyper-reality cyberspaces • Abstracted reality cyberspaces • Hybrid cyberspaces • Virtual spaces The Virtual Museum of Arts El Pais and Gu’s (2001) Virtual Conference Centre DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, August 2007

10. Kalay & Marx:Design Criteria 1 Successful virtual places require: • Purposes that sustain the place of being well populated • Engagement of users with objects or people • Sense of relative location • Sense of authenticity (questionable) DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, August 2007

11. Kalay and Marx:Design Criteria 2 • Adaptability to different purposes • Virtual experiences that may not be available in the physical world • Good control over transitions • Visual and emotional richness DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, August 2007

12. Champion and Barahat:Design Criteria Virtual places must do all that plus: • Be evocative of related activities and previous places • Show signs of use over time • Imply a setting • Make appropriate use of cultural symbols DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, August 2007

13. That’s a Long List… • No exhaustive list of place qualities • Such lists are inspiration • Not all places have the same requirements! • Reason about what’s appropriate • Be able to defend your decisions • Find examples of good designs DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, August 2007

14. Introducing Task 1 An Impossible Social Space • Design and build a space that couldn’t exist in the real world • Explore Kalay and Marx’s hybrid and hyper virtual cyberspace concepts • Critique session: August 28th • Implementation, report, and presentation: 6pm, July 4th DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, August 2007

15. Assessment Criteria:Design and Implementation 1 • Size restriction (1 mark) • Circulation (1 mark) • Navigational and functional cues (1 marks) • Efficient use of prims (1 mark) • Functional spaces for socialising (2 marks) DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, August 2007

16. Assessment Criteria:Design and Implementation 2 • “Impossible” elements (2 marks) • Consideration of Second Life interaction norms (2 marks) • Texturing (2 marks) • Sense of place and consistency of design (3 marks) DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, August 2007

17. Assessment Criteria:Report A maximum 1000 word document discussing your design’s: • Virtual elements (2 marks) • Functional areas (2 marks) • Design principles (2 marks) • Strengths and limitations (2 marks) • Future extensions (2 marks) DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, August 2007

18. Presentation A 5 minute presentation: • Demonstrating the design • Discussing your design decisions Worth 5 marks total DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, August 2007

19. Today’s Tutorial We’re a bit behind so: • Work through the tutorial sheets • Join the class group in SL • Buy land with your group • We recommend land in Iwaki • Look at existing builds in SL • Practice, practice, practice! DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, August 2007

20. For Next Week • Find two outstanding builds within Second Life to discuss in the tutorial • Read Gu and Maher (2004), “Generating virtual architecture with style”. • Available on the course website DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, August 2007

21. Bibliography • Kalay, Y. & Marx. J., 2001, "Architecture and the Internet: Designing places in cyberspace“, Jabi, W. (ed.), Proceedings of ACADIA2001, Pomona, USA, pp. 230-240 • Champion, E., and Bharat, D., 2002, “Where is this place?”, in Proctor, G. (ed), Proceedings of ACADIA2002, Pomona, USA, pp. 87-97 DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, August 2007