npCommons+visitor+orientation

Stacy Surla / Stacy Narayan

Hi Tom,

This is a great IA puzzle. Thanks for asking for my input.

Here are my initial ideas. First let's get clear on the key scenarios. It sounds like we're focusing right now on wayfinding from the TP hub to individual member offices.

I see 3 main scenarios, but there could be others: - First time at the sim, arrive at main TP site, don't know where anything is, looking for a particular office - Been here before, arrive at main TP site, want to explore the sim - Currently at an office, want to get to a different office

The 2 main ways of navigating are: - Teleporting - Moving through the sim

Factors that negatively affect wayfinding: - Signs rez slowly, so visitors might not even recognize them as navigational aids - All the buildings in the sim look very much alike, making it hard to orient yourself on a map or find your way back to a place you've been before - Awnings obscure the storefronts from a flying position - TP maps require prims, which make them expensive for point-to-point transport - Numbers on the offices don't make much sense, and are hard to see

Possible solutions: - Provide big navigational gestures that will register at a high level. For instance, at the main TP hub, in the direct line of sight of an arriving visitor, have a 3D compass rose, oriented exactly as the sim is oriented, with arrows that rez quickly. (Use textures already present in the environment, instead of new textures.) Or a signpost with signs pointing to all 4 quadrants. This will look like a wayfinding sign, so visitors might wait while it rezzes. Then put just the minimum info on the signs (ie the organization names/acronyms only) to get visitors moving in the right direction.

- Give more detail as they go. For example, at the entrance to each of the four quadrants, perhaps a second sign, with a map showing location of all offices in that quarter only. Again, avoid the use of unnecessary logos and textures to speed up rezzing. Also, the compass rose could have tp spots, at least to the middle of each of the 4 streets. Naming the streets could be fun, though this is quite a detail-y detail. (There are probably other ways of providing "more detail as they go," too.)

- Distinguish quadrants in a broad and memorable way. If it's possible to color the streets, or economical to overlay translucent color panels on the streets or in the air, then we could color-code the quadrants. This coloring could be used on the compass rose as well. Non-physical color ribbons might be useful also. (Aside: this reminds me of a children's party game - each kid got a ribbon and had to follow it to some interesting object in the house.) There are surely other ways to visually distinguish the quadrants -- perhaps putting large monuments in some of the streets?

- The problem of tp-enabled maps being prim-hogs is a very interesting one. This is where Second Life would benefit from some non-realistic physics. If we had wormholes, or tesseracts, then one tp-enabled map could serve every office in the sim. As it is, perhaps the middle of each street could share one telemap.

- Have a convention for banners for each of the offices. For instance, the IAI put a banner in the treebox in front of the office so it could be seen from above. Think up other ways to distinguish the offices. Even get permission from Anshe Chung to delete some of the awnings!

We can continue brainstorming. I'll share the puzzle and these initial thoughts with others in the IAI group. Do you mind if I also share them more publicly, like on my http://fritillaria.blogspot.com/ site?

~Stacy

Quoting tom maroney :

> Hi Stacy > > I'm one of the founders of the Nonprofit Commons, and we've been > having a conversation about how to improve navigation on the sim for > visitors. We'd love to have your input and IA expertise in this > discussion. > > I'm forwarding the whole thread below, so you can see what we've been > talking about. Is this something you could help us out with? At the > very least, some time to get your input and advice would be wonderful. > > Thanks so much. > > Tom Maroney / Frank Foley > > > -- Forwarded message -- > From: Susan Tenby  > Date: May 17, 2007 9:31 AM > Subject: RE: Sim navigation: 3 questions > To: tom maroney , Matthew Saunders > < msaunders@westaf.org> > Cc: Beth Kanter < beth@bethkanter.org>, Dick Dillon < ddillon@pfh.org>, > Beth Felice , Sandra Andrews < sandra@asu.edu>, > Tuesday Gutierrez < tuesdaygutz@gmail.com> > > > > > > I think this is a fantastic idea. I would also recommend that you > contact Lori Bell, b/c she obviously has a lot of experience with this > issue, on a much bigger scale. > > > From: tom maroney [mailto: tom.maroney@gmail.com] > Sent: Thu 5/17/2007 9:16 AM > To: Matthew Saunders > Cc: Beth Kanter; Dick Dillon; Beth Felice; Susan Tenby; Sandra > Andrews; Tuesday Gutierrez > Subject: Re: Sim navigation: 3 questions > > > > > I think naming the streets sounds really cute. You're right that we > probably can't do it in any meaningful way, since the orgs aren't > grouped by type or topic, but it could still be a nice addition to the > sim. > > And I think getting Stacy's help is a great idea! Navigation through > a sim is one of the many user challenges in SL, so it would be > wonderful to have an IA perspective. > > I can contact her and then interested parties should probably have an > in-world meeting or phone conference. > > On 5/17/07, Matthew Saunders < msaunders@westaf.org > wrote: >> >> >> >> I agree with Beth on this. >> >> --MS >> >> >> >> -Original Message- >> From: Beth Kanter [mailto: beth@bethkanter.org] >> Sent: Thu 5/17/2007 6:27 AM >> To: 'Dick Dillon'; 'Beth Felice'; 'tom maroney'; Matthew Saunders >> Cc: 'Susan Tenby'; 'Sandra Andrews'; 'Tuesday Gutierrez' >> Subject: RE: Sim navigation: 3 questions >> >> re: 2. Can name the courtyards with some sort of theme related to >> nonprofits? Something like "501c3 Alley" ".Org Courtyard" "Do Good >> Street" "Charity Court" "Activism Alley" -- or some theme that relates to >> the tenants located on that courtyard (our group is probably too >> undifferiented for that) >> >> With web sites, to plan navigation they do user scenarios -- is there >> something comparable for SL? Like we imagine a new visitor arriving at NP >> Commons - where do they land, where and how do we want to guide to visit >> the >> offices. I wonder if we could get Stacey's input since she is a IA and >> looking at these issues? >> >> B >> --- >> From: tom.maroney@gmail.com [mailto: tom.maroney@gmail.com] >> Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 1:28 AM >> To: Dick Dillon; 'Beth Felice'; 'Matthew Saunders' >> Cc: 'Susan Tenby'; 'Beth Kanter'; 'Sandra Andrews'; 'Tuesday Gutierrez' >> Subject: RE: Sim navigation: 3 questions >> >> >> The main issue with having a tp-enabled map in every office is that each >> number has to be its own prim, in order for them to be clickable, which >> means that each map is 33 prims. So after we put one in each office and >> one in the central area, that's almost 1,000 prims. >> >> It would be great to find a more prim-efficient method, so we can save >> those >> prims for tenants' content, rather than eating it up on infrastructure. >> >> _ >> >> From: Dick Dillon [mailto:ddillon@pfh.org] >> >> >> >> 2. Are we invested AT ALL in office numbers? Or is a logo and a tp here >> script enough >> Please, what are your thoughts. If you saw a legend with a thumb logo, the >> org name in a list, and a map with the org thumb, and both thumbs were >> prims >> that could tp you to the threshhold, would that be enough. Some reasons: >> there are so many freaking numbers already, there are no numbers >> on the courtyards, the numbers were not assigned to offices in a consistent >> pattern. >> >> Not particularly invested in numbering it could just as easily be 1 SW or 3 >> NE or ???? The logos may not show up so well on the map if it is the size >> it is now. One of my thoughts about navigation is that every space have a >> map of the sim on the wall, with touch/teleport capabilities to get you to >> every other space. >> >> >> >> >> >> >>