How do we evaluate usable spaces?

In the first post in this series, I shared the basic hunch driving this project by asking the question:

Can VW design be informed by the study of usability in early web page design?

In this post, I will test that premise by jumping into an early article by Jakob Nielson, then finding and dissecting a web page issue. I hope to get at the heart of effective design, potentially putting my pointer on a pulsating principle of effective communication.

Mr. Nielson is “a leading web usability consultant” who holds 79 patents in the United States, primarily for making the Internet easier to use (Wikipedia). His site appears to be focused on corporate web design (tag line: usable information technology); but, corporate web pages need to communicate, so what was learned there should also apply in the design of educational content.

And so, in I go…

As his first point in the seminal Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design (1996), Nielson chose to advise against using frames in a website. But wait, we’re talking about Second Life®, and we don’t got no stinkin’ frames.

Or do we?

Reading that first point in the article, one learns that the problem was how frames “break the fundamental user model of the web page.”

“All of a sudden, you cannot bookmark the current page and return to it.”

Sound familiar?

This is a navigation issue, and it does speak to one aspect of design in our virtual world.

About Land window in Second Life®

Breaking the user model with frames is the result of disregarding the user’s prerogative to control access. In Second Life, I can uncheck a checkbox in the About Land window and prevent you from creating a Landmark (see image). A landmark for a SL location is the virtual world equivalent to a bookmark. It is even a drop-down menu, just like in my browser. If I want to return to a location later, what do I do? Select Menu > World > Create Landmark Here. I can also assign a landing point for teleporting into the sim. This is another way to affect navigation. So, in a remote sense, SL has given us frames with which to work.

But, we can generalize this navigation issue further; and, this is where I find paydirt…

The usability exception for Nielson was that frames break the user model…you cannot bookmark the current page. More basically, this is saying that we should consider the users and provide them with an appropriate level of navigational control. That could be important; something to think about during planning.

Consider the following scenario…

You are strolling through my virtual zoo. You come to the Lion’s Den, and notice that the lion is so well crafted and realistic that you want to send a landmark to everyone in your contact list. So, you pull down “Menu > World > Create Landmark Here” only to learn that I have disabled this option. Why would I do that? Perhaps the lion’s den is the final step in a sequence, a scavenger hunt or a puzzle to be solved. Maybe the lion’s den is the pièce de résistance, and seeing that first would spoil a visitor for the rest of the tour.

Maybe I just want you to rezz near the Gift Shop.

The point is this: depending on the context of the build, you may—or may not—want to restrict a user’s ability to create a landmark.

What if I do not restrict teleporting to a landing point in my zoo? A user might rezz in the Lion’s Den where he will become dinner (and immediately end up at his home location, bloody and confused, because I have scripted my lion with a PounceOnDetect function and buiilt my zoo in a combat sim).

Now, with this navigation-control issue stirred up, other usability questions arise:

• What criteria lead one to see landmark or teleport restriction as an effective design strategy?
• Should a user be informed about the restriction, and how?
• Should an alternative be explained? (”To return to this location, enter at the Landing Zone and look for the Lions Den teleporter at the landing zone.” Or, more simply, reinforce the meaning of the link at the landing zone by repeating the graphic icon at the lion’s den display.)

I am optimistic that comparison with the Internet can inform the analysis of usability in virtual worlds; the purpose of this exercise was not to elaborate on land access. By considering a single design issue that was first raised thirteen years ago, I have identified another aspect of virtual world design that affects a learner’s experience.

Still, I do think I will open the wiki and add that point above.