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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 28 th  Implementation, report, and presentation: 6pm, July 4 th DESC9180 Designing Virtual Worlds University of Sydney, August 2007

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

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

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

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

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

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

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