Interactive Training Blog

It recently came to my attention from a post I did at Maxping that I should probably rewind and address basic virtual world design principles and standards (I guess I put the cart before the horse on this one and neglected to address this in prior posts). This ‘shiny’ VW technology is pretty cool- but without guidance, we are headed for user confusion and slow adoption of virtual world applications. Sadly, controls, navigation, avatars, and environments vary drastically from one metaverse to the next; yes, the geeks still rule.

Virtual worlds can be complex environments with steep learning curves to simply navigate and operate ‘in-world.’ This often surfaces as one of the biggest barriers to virtual world mainstream adoption. Some VWs actually employ a lack of design and concept and leave the user wanting more, or needing to create more to satisfy time in the virtual world. I realize that is the appeal of some virtual worlds, to build from the ground up. Just like house hunting- is it better to buy a house that is already built and have no say in the design rather just live with it, or are you better off designing and building it from the ground up to satisfy all of your needs.

Most designers and programmers assume that much functionality within the virtual world space should be intuitive to the user, when in fact it is not. Ever purchased a foreign made product and tried to assemble with a lack of directions- while some of the assembly process may be intuitive other processes may not. I believe that there is a certain level of functionality that we must achieve in order to make the road to adoption smoother. While many challenges relate to design, it’s ok for each virtual world to be unique within its own environment as long as basic navigation principles are agreed upon and adhered to.

So in the end all of my ranting about design principles may or may not make sense to the readers. However, in the end it boils down to the user truly grasping the principles of virtual world design in order to feel ‘at home’ and navigate with ease. I believe that employing basic design principles and standards to virtual worlds present a host of challenges and opportunities.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites