User:Azwaldo
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Virtual World Usability
Information on this page is being staged for review and formatting prior to placement in the Effective VW Instructional Design page. Initial sort and filter of issues occurs in the EIDVW_Issues page. Content is also being posted in a parallel Wikispaces site.
This process appears to be approaching this order of events:
or...
Design Issues
Classifying design elements
As opposed to educational topics, the following is specific to the objects that might be found in spaces designed for instructional use.
Categories of design elements
Generalized from content criteria found in EP, Otherland, etc.
- Nc = Navigation (Content) - addresses the purpose of navigational aids
- Nd = Navigation (Distribution) - addresses the placement of navigational aids
- Np = Navigation (Presentation) - addresses the appearance of navigational aids
- Ic = Information (Content) - addresses the purpose of instructional text
- Id = Information (Distribution) - addresses the placement of instructional text
- Ip = Information (Presentation) - addresses the appearance of instructional text
- B = Design of Buildings - addresses the need to consider interiors, tight spaces, thematic continuity and distinction
- Q = Quality of design - addresses the overall quality of the content
User-dependent Issues
- UI = User Interface - addresses the need to adjust viewer settings, preferences
- UE = User Experience - addresses the level of expertise required
The last four categories represent characteristics that may fall beyond the scope of this study, initially. They are included here due to their appearance in the original source materials.
Possible Guidelines
Provide users with an appropriate level of control over access to the space: are landmark restriction and landing point assignment necessary?
Conventions
(What is being done about a particular guideline.)
Known Issues
In which material found elsewhere has been sorted and tweezed for submission
Optimization
...as suggested by Markus Breuer, CEO "The Otherland Group"
in METAVERSE08 Usability in Second Life
- Make signs readable from the point where people arrive when teleporting [Ip]
- If your cool architecture makes it had for avatars to navigate: offer them help. [Nd]
- Design for avatars that have a cam 2m behind and 1m above them. [B]
- Don't lead people into dead ends or hide access points. [B]
- Help people find orientation [Ip]
- Help people get their processes straight: what can I do? [Ic]
- Bot that give cryptic instructions are not helpful [Misc.]
- Tell users exactly what you need them to do [Ic]
- Price tags and orientation maps are cool, too [Ic]
Assessing SL Building Projects
Arrival/orientation [EP1]
1 Is it clear where the avatar is supposed to go on arrival? [Nd,Id,Ip,Ic]
2 Is the theme of the build made clear immediately on arrival? [Ip]
3 Is it clear for whom the build is intended? [Ic]
4 Is there a stated list of objectives? [Ic]
Navigation [EP1]
- Is it clear which path the avatar should take or the options that are available? [Nc]
- Are avatars encouraged to change environment settings to make the most of the build? [UI]
- Is navigation within the build obvious? [Np]
- Is it easy to find the start again if appropriate? [Nd,Np]
- Is it easy to get between different parts of a build, e.g. via teleports? [Nd,Nc]
- Can avatars exercise choice in navigation? [Nc]
- Are the different parts of the build adequately distinguished? [B]
- Does the build cater satisfactorily for different avatar sizes? [B]
- Does the build cater for social use, e.g. by pairs or groups of avatars? [B]
- Is the build camera-friendly, i.e. the avatar camera stays within walls and isn't subject to "bounce" and newbies aren't forced to use complex camera movements? [B]
Content [EP1]
- Is the build interactive? [Q]
- Is interactivity related to the topic? [Q]
- Is interactivity varied? [Q]
- Does the build exploit the potential to provide an alternative to real-life experiences? [Q]
- Does the build make use of the third, z dimension? [Q]
- Is the build "kinetic", i.e. does it encourage movement and navigation? [Q]
- Do the structural elements used have relevance to the topic? [Q]
- Is there sufficient variety to the build? [Q]
- How accurate and topical is the information provided? [Ic]
- Are there any accidental examples of cognitive dissonance, e.g. fluids appearing to flow uphill. [Q]
- Is there use of humour where appropriate? [Q]
Other Criteria [EP 2,3]
- Avatar skills: Can the objectives be mastered with students having their current level of avatar SL skills, or is there time and significant justification to spend time to develop said skills? [UE]
- Attention: How easy or difficult is it for you to stay focused in this environment? To the material being presented? Is something creating distraction or intellectual “noise?” [Q]
- Comprehension: Are the messages, visual or linguistic, comprehensible? Is the vocabulary too complex to follow? Do the communication forms (IM, chat, and voice) adequately facilitate needed communication? Is it clear how the visuals relate to the subject and do they help to understand it? [Q]
"EP" = Content Evaluation Criteria pertaining to from "Assessing Student Work" by Eloise Pasteur at these pages 1, 2, 3
Misc Issues
- design bloat (gratuitous use of tech)
- moving or blinking text (what in SL is distracting, like blinking text in a web page?)
- long download times (an issue pertaining to overall design, but worth mention?)
- orphan pages (old content; is it too soon in VW evolution to worry about this?)
- long scrolling pages ("All critical content and navigation options should be on the top part of the page. "...is there a VW equivalent? does this speak to the design of a landing zone?)
- "..design with a good understanding of the structure of the information space and communicate this structure explicitly to the user. Provide a site map and let users know where they are and where they can go." (Nielson)
Formerly a secondary science educator, now a scripter in the virtual world of Second Life® and instances of the OpenSimulator such as ReactionGrid.
