The Otherland Group - Blog

Usability in Virtuellen Welten - kein Luxus sondern kaufmännisch sinnvoll

Nachdem ich in der letzten Woche noch einmal ein paar "Corporate Locations" in virtuellen Welten besucht habe, musste ich nich einmal an meine Präsentation zu "Usability in virtuellen Welten" auf der Metavers08 denken (Charts dazu hier; englisch) Ich hatte ja schon mal vor einem Jahr darüber geschrieben, aber seitdem hat sich die Situation nicht sehr verbessert: Usability ist immer noch ein Aspekt, der bei solchen Projekten nur eine sehr niedrige Priorität bekommt - wenn überhaupt jemand dran denkt. Das ist ganz ähnlich wie Mitte der 90er im Web: Entwickler sind so begeistert von den neuen Möglichkeiten und von spektakulärem Design, dass alles Andere dahinter zurück fällt.

Das war im Web nicht besonders hilfreich, sobald es darum ging, auch Geschäfte zu machen. Und das ist im virtuellen Raum nicht anders. Interessanterweise ist es aber gar nicht sooo schwierig, es "besser zu machen". Die Erfahrungen aus rund 25 Jahren Software-Ergonomie (und rund 12 Jahren Webdesign) zeigen, wie es geht ...

Technorati Tags: 3d web, metaverse, second life, ucd, usability, virtual worlds, web 3.d

Wanne try a New virtual world? 50 Beta Invitations for Twinity

Twinity is probably one of the most interesting contenders in the realm of "full immersion" 3D worlds. At least it is certainly the most ambitious German project in this market. Metaversum, the company behind Twinity, is a firm believer in the mirror worlds idea (i.e. replicating real world locations in a virtual 3D space). They intend to reproduce some of the best know urban areas of the world first, starting with Berlin - not a huge surprise with a company based in the German capital. (Its fairly interesting to compare their ideas with the concepts behind newcomer Near btw.)

The platform is still in a closed beta currently. Client and servers are relatively stable, already, though. It can be loads of fun exploring the virtual Berlin - especially if you know Berlin in physical reality.

If you want to give it a try, just click HERE (the link is good for 50 sign ups; so please don't be disappointed if it won't work anymore in a few days).

WARNING: The Twinity client software is only available for Windows, currently. Yes, no Macintosh and no Linux version, either.

Technorati Tags: 3d web, metaverse, second life, twinity, virtual worlds, web 3.d

The importance of having shadows Or: realism in virtual worlds

What is the difference between the two pictures above? Realism? Immersion? Fun? Success? Both are rendered from Virtual worlds. The left one is from Gaia an low end (and extremely successful 2.5D world. The right picture is taking from Playstation Home, probably the most realistic virtual word of today, only accessible with a Sony Playstation 3.

Hamlet Au, one of the most famous authors in the Second Life Blogospere recently posted an arcticle about a new experimental version of Second Life, which provoked a lot of comments immediately. He questioned if it was really desireble to have more graphics effects, more realism in Second Life - especially if this leads to different user experiences among the users - and quoted some interesting numbers:

Top virtual worlds/MMOs by use, as of 2008:
- World of Warcraft, 10 million subscribers
- Habbo Hotel, 8 million monthly active users
- RuneScape, 5 million monthly active users
- Club Penguin, 4 million monthly active users
- Webkinz, 4 million monthly active users

He concludes, that people probably don't want realistic 3D worlds, as 4 of 5 of the most successful virtual worlds are 2.5D and the only 3D one is certainly not "high end" or "realistic". 

I can't follow his line of reasoning though.  While I won't argue his numbers (showing that a lot of 2.5D worlds are vastly more popular than next gen 3D ones), it is tough to draw conclusions from such a fact. When two factors are correlated this just means that they are ... correlated, NOT that one is the result of the other in a cause-and-effect relationship. :) Assuming cause-and-effect when there is correlation is one of the most popular mistakes in logic.

Eddie the Artificially Intelligent 4-Year Old

While robots in 3d games are currently in the headlines and disputed in courts of law [English source] [German source] there are application of those robots that go beyond the current staffing of deserted islands with chatbots in Second Life.

The matters involved here are complex. But let's start with the concept:

What if a robotic avatar in a virtual world could both understand natural language and make predictions about your behavior because it "knows" what you think?

Right, this would be helpful for all kinds of applications, from gaming to military to education.

And the first steps along this path have been made by the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who created 'Eddi' a virtual intelligence which is confronted with a task that 4-year-olds fail to accomplish.

The test done is the so called 'false-belief test'. I quote:
"In a typical real-life version of this test, a child witnesses a series of events in which Person A places an object (such as a teddy bear) in a certain location (such as a cabinet). Person A then leaves the room, and during his absence Person B moves the object to a new location (such as the refrigerator). The child is then asked to predict where Person A will look for the object when he gets back.The right answer, of course, is the cabinet, but children age 4 and under will generally say the refrigerator because they haven’t yet formed a theory of the mind of others." (RPI News)

Now the researches of RASCALS (Rensselaer Advanced Synthetic Characters Architecture for Living Systems) created both a version if Eddi who fails like a typical 4-year-old and one that can master both the parsing of the language and the logic behind the task.

The researchers are planning to install a 'star Trek type holodeck' where virtual characters can interact with humans in a real environment. While the team needs to cooperate with a heavy duty computing array from IBM at the moment to accomplish this task at the moment we might see similar setups in 5 or 10 years more commonly.

Source: RPI

Eddie der künstlich intelligente Vierjährige

Während der Einsatz von Robotern in 3D-Spielen nicht nur gerade Schlagzeilen macht und gar Gerichte beschäftigt  [Englische Quelle] [Deutsche Quelle] gibt es durchaus Anwendungen solcher Roboter, die weit über den Einsatz von Chatavataren auf verlassenen SL-Inseln hinausgeht.

Das Thema ist komplex, beginnen wir mit dem Konzept:

Was wenn ein Roboter-Avatar in einer virtuellen Welt sowohl natürliche Sprache verstehen könnte als auch "wüsste" was wir denken und voraussehen könnte, was wir tun?

Genau: das wäre bei einer ganzen Reihe von Anwendungen hilfreich, vom Daddeln über militärische Anwendungen bis hin zur Bildung.

METAVERSE08 Virtual worlds and the 2d Web (Martin Szugat; Webinale)

Martin Szugat gives us an overview on which concepts of virtual worlds and Second Life we see in the 2d Web.
Avatars are now a common feature of communities and the social character of 3d worlds are also emulated  by the web. Websites try to create a sense of immersion that is the major characteristic of VWs.

With applications like MS Photosynth you create virtual-world-like 3d models of real environments. Online shops try to create a 3d experience when shopping, like the Otto Shop.

The real time aspect of 3d environments play a role in live shopping environments like Woot or Gimmahot. There are also real time quiz formats like 'Wie weit wirst du gehen?'.

METAVERSE08 Machinima - Concept to delivery (Eric Call)

Eric Call is a former "Linden" and started his own content company a while ago.
He will discuss

• platform options
• pre-production and production
• technical, content and creative considerations
• capturing video
• editing and output
• machinima's future
• creative suggestions

Why machninima?
It is cheap, has a fast production time, there is a lot of talent (e.g. in SL) to draw from, the quality *can* be very good, it is flexible from capture to delivery

You can use

• CD ROM games
• Console games
• stand alone engines
• casual games

They have rich environments, detailed props, high framerates, great overall performance. You have little room for camera angles and customization.

• virtual worlds

Here you have more options for camera positioning, completely customized sets, high resolution sets (soon easily imported from former "normal 3d" work). Drawbacks: Production managements can be a challenge, little control over the basic system, low frame rates, lagging (created by overtexturing).

METAVERSE08 Media in Virtual Worlds

We have a small panel here about the future of media in connection with virtual words.

Life4U: We do 'classical news TV' in Second Life, we have avatar-reportes and use their raw material like we use normal RL material in our TV-work - on the cutting table. And we lipsynch the moderators. The result is a 10 minute news format.

Software Support Verlag (publishing): We usually just ask people to identify markets for future magazine titles. Sometimes magazines also help markets to emerge. It's hard with open source as there is not so much investment in advertising. If there is a industry active in a topic area a niche product is possible. We do mags for specialists in niches. We also theink about what virtual worlds mean for our business.

METAVERSE08 Usability in Second Life - Making sense of business

"The Otherland Group"-CEO Markus Breuer is presenting at Metaverse 08 and I'll take some notes ;)

It's important to optimize virtual environments in accordance with the functions and aims that my presence in this world has. Providing an agreeable environment is one of those aims. It makes people come back.

Usability optimization has a very positive effect in ROI, on the web this is compensated within 6 to 8 months.

In Second Life Usability is a problem because
a) you deal with user generated content
b) SL is a usability nightmare of it's own

* Make signs readable from the point where people arrive when teleporting
* If your cool architecture makes it had for avatars to navigate: offer them help.
* Design for avatars that have a cam 2m behind and 1m above them.
* Don't lead people into dead ends or hide access points.
* Help people find orientation
* Help people get their processes straight: what can I do?
* Bot that give cryptic instructions are not helpful
* Tell users exactly what you need them to do
* Price tags and orientation maps are cool, too

Hints for improvemets:
* Ask experts
* Ask users (best!)

There is even already a ISO standard for user involvement in usability design: ISO 13407

If people have more fun there is more ease and more ROI.

The Otherland Group developed a design pah that involves users and that is as fast as the classical "expert" path. What are the users needs, desires, abilities and what methods do they use?

Build personas and let them act in scenarios.
Test, test often, document your tests, analze quickly.
Document on video, have a second room for viewing.

Thus you develop a real understanding for the user.

My golden rule, says Markus, is: "Make UCD, involve the user, test often."

Usually 8-12 users find all the problems. (1000 do not find more.)
Testing is NOT expensive.
Not testing can become expensive.
The later you fix the errors, the more expensive by a factor of 10 to 100.

Design for the avatar.
Do walk-throughs often.
Do fly-throughs, too.
Set the viewing range to standard.
Show people where they are and what they can do.
Billboards and posters are not necessarily evil.

These principles don't lead to boring sites and SIMs.

METAVERSE08 Overview of virtual worlds - Nic Mitham - KZERO

Blogging live from the 'Metaverse' in Karlsruhe.

Nic Mitham from the 3D consulting agency KZERO is giving an overview of virtual worlds.

The following depends on his statements and comments.

He is differentiating mainly by the age troup that is targeted, the number of registred users and the age of the world itself.

When VWs (virtual worlds) communicate user numbers we have to be aware of the following indicators.

• registered accounts – awareness indicator
• unique acounts – cleaner awareness indicator
• active accounts – engagement indicator
• concorrent accounts – live activity
• premium accounts – value indicator

Really big for age 10+ are:

• Neopets  with 45 million users
• Barbie Girls (12 m)
• Webkinz (1m) and many more.
• Lego Universe (LU) will be released in 2009.

These are the future users of SL and similar worlds

Lego is really user generated content all the way. In real life or virtually.

In it you can generate Lego models in a Minority Report' like interface.