Usability in Virtual Worlds (Metaverse08)

MAKING SENSE OF BUSINESS IN VIRTUAL WORLDS

Usability in virtual worldsMaking Sense of Business in Virtual Worlds

Karlsruhe, May 27th, 2008

Seite 2© 2008 The Otherland Group GmbH Making Sense of Business in Virtual Worlds

About us ...


The Otherland GroupMaking Sense Of Business in Virtual Worlds

We are offering consulting and professional services for companies wishing to enter the Metaverse.

All of our projects, products and services are developed in a context of integrated brand communication, with a clear focus on return-on-investment and have to have measurable performance indicators.

“Lets do it! The competition is doing it, too.”... That’s so 2007!


Consulting ^Development Services

Full-Service for the Web3D

Our Portfolio includes all services necessary for a longterm engagement in virtual worlds, that makes business sense and operates with of measurable key performance indicators.

Our business is structured into three divisions which supplement each other but which deliver results independently from each other.

Consulting for (and before) using virtual worlds in real business

Implementation of projects in/with virtual worlds; customers projects and our own

Services and products in the realm of virtual worlds; B2C und B2B


Inworld Advertising Network

Since 2007 we are maintaining an advertising network for virtual worlds and conducted some high profile campaigns for companies like Deutsche Post, Funny Frisch, Axel Springer Verlag, EnBW, Gothaer Versicherungen or Festo AG.

Together with nugg.ad AG we developed the first solution for “behavioral targeting“ in virtual worlds.


Otherland Real Estate

The real estate division of Otherland is the third-largest real estate developer in Second Life Pure premium / luxury segment 8 Mio. virtual sqm in stock 400 customers plus project business

Additional services Procurement and development Facility management User support Security


The Otherland Archipelago


Analytics

Tools for measuring and controlling the performance of projects in virtual worlds

simple log analysis (counter)

premium analysis package

behavioral analysis

vCRM Suite


Plus project-driven business


But now ...

Usability in Virtual Worlds


Usability?

Usability is a term used to denote the ease with which people can employ a particular tool or other human-made object in order to achieve a particular goal [efficiently, effectively w/ user satisfaction]

> Ergonomics

Ergonomics is the scientific discipline concerned with designing according to the human needs, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance.

> Human Factors Engineering


But ... usability in virtual worlds?

Isn't this for software and machines, only?


No!


Every system intended to fulfill a certain functionor help users reach a certain goal ...

... should be designed with a maximum of usability


Examples for functions

Sell stuff

Teach visitors something

Keep people in my building

Present a brand favorably to visitors

Change their attitude

etc. ...


Examples for (users) goals

Buy a pair of (virtual) high heels

Learn how to ...

Have a good time

Meet other people

etc. ...


That‘s why this should be “usable“


... and this should be “usable“, too


... and this


What is the purpose here?


Impress with ‘Sweden‘


The situation today, though:

Cool Design rulez!

(like on the web in the late 90s)


This will (has to) change ...

... as soon as the focus is on business ROI


Is this all about Second Life?

No!

Everything said is valid for all worlds.

Including physical reality, of course ...


Zur Anzeige wird der QuickTime™ Dekompressor „“

benötigt.



benötigt.


Problems in Second Life are similar wide-spread

(1) User Generated Content - like in RL

(2) Second Life itself is already a usability nightmare


Let‘s have a look at the state of the art!


Whoopsie


Disclaimer

I have no intention of dissing the competition.

But I can’t avoid some examples of other guys works:

It is hard to talk about usability without examples

We can’t make all the mistakes ourselves

That said ... besides the small mistakes I am showing here, all those guys are doing a great job and actually build some of the coolest projects in Metaverse.


Where am I? What can I do here?


What do I need a flight assistant for?


Cool Architecture!


Where to?


What will a newbie find here?


Is this what I am looking for?


That‘s what the newbie sees on his screen


Design scaled for a human


Design for avatars

Not for humans!


Let‘s go party!


The road to nowhere


Where am I?


This looks dangerous


Whaaaaahhhhh


Design for avatars

And mind your target audience!


Where am I? What am I supposed to do?


Hmmmmm ?


Great, an overview!


Let‘s try ‘orientation‘ ...


Ooops. Where is the Back button?


But ... unquestionably cool design


Some usability rules of thumb

Always make clear:

Where am I?

What can I do here?

Where can I go from here?

Where have I been?(How do I get back?)


Usability is not only about orientation


What do these people want from me?


Aaahh, a panel!


Why don‘t they talk with me?


Why should I do this?


Fulfill users expectations

Something that looks like an avatar ...... should behave like an avatar

Something that looks like a car ... You get the idea?

And please don’t overdo “creativity” Make it simple Tell your users, what you want Tell your users, what they can expect


Even successful projects can have issues


Where to?


Where is the stuff I am looking for?


Sometimes the old ideas are the best


Why not hand out a map?


And, while we are at it ...why not quote prices, too? :=)


There is always room for more usability!


So, Usability in SL has ... „room for improvement“

How to improve it?


Two Ways to Approach Usability

1. Ask the experts

2. Ask the users


Ask the experts?

Much better than letting designers or software developers anticipate users needs, expectations, thoughts ...


It doesn‘t make the process any easier, though


Usability experts are from Mars, Designers are from Venus

... and software devs are from Jupiter


Ask the Experts?

Experts are people, too.

So many websites suck today because of the hippo - as in the "highest paid person's opinion."

Avinash Kaushik, Analytics Evangelist Google, Inc.


Ask the Users!

A much, much better idea!


Enter

User Centered Design


User Centered Design.

„You are not the Audience“

Put the (future) users into the focus.

Work open-endedly. Don’t have an expert design ready before you start and plan for one big test at the end.


Basics UCD | ISO 13407

“Human centered design processes for interactive systems”

Principles:

Actively involve the users in the design and development

Iterative Evaluation of designs with the end users

Multi-disciplinary staffed development teams

Major goals: More effective, more efficient use of the system Improved working conditions More “Joy of Use” / Flow


Process model UCD (simplified)

User interviews (8 - 12)

Mental Model

Personas / Scenarios

Paper models / wire frames

User Testing

Prototype

User Testing

Final Version


Step 1: User interviews

Developers and experts can never have the same attitude towards the end product as the real user.

So ... Let us find out what the user thinks!

We start with a series of intense user interviews.


What we want to find out

NeedsWhat are the user’s needs (information, services, performance, features, ...)

DesiresWhat does the user want (rarely identical with the needs)?

AbilitiesWhat can we expect about the user’s abilities and knowledge? In which situations / contexts are the using our systems?

MethodsHow do users solve similar challenges today (without our system)? (steps, order of steps, breaks, phases ...)


Resulting in a “mental model”


Personas

Mental models describe user’s thoughts, ideas and prerequisites on an abstract level.

To really envision our users, we need something else

one or more persona(s)

Personas describe a ‘real’ (fictive) person from the systems target group.


Personas

A name

An age

A gender

A picture

A private situation

A job

A particular PC

A specific reason for using the system

A goal

Individual needs/wants

Individual fears

Personas have

Stereotypes are good! (“Nerd“, “Yuppie“, “old miser”). Political correctness is NOT the goal.

Personas should help the development team, to understand the user maybe even impersonate him/her.


An example: Holger

This is Holger.

age: 38

situation: married, one son

small house, near Munich

occupation: team leader development with a big electronics company

web: spends > 3h/day on the web (job related)spends > 1h/day on the web (private)windows based notebook, 1GHz, 2GB

income: 2.500 EUR

etc. etc.


Scenarios

Little stories about the personas (no use cases),

– How and with what goals,

– in which perticular situation

they use our system.

Important:

– Something might go wrong

– Other people might join/get involved

Typically 3 - 4 Scenarios per Persona.


Testing with paper models

VERY useful for web design

... not really relevant for virtual worlds today


User tests

All tests have to be run in a controlled environment - but not necessarily in a lab. Stay pragmatic.

More important:

Test often

Document tests properly

Analyze tests immediately


Testing setup

Raum 1 - Testdurchführung Raum 2 - Beobachtung

Der „Rechner“

Moderator

Proband

Video

Beobachter 1

Beobachter 2


Tight iteration cycles

Test early

Test often (weekly)

Many tests (small groups) instead of few big ones

Short cycles guarantee, that the project can’t run into the wrong direction for too long.


Mental models, personas, scenarios.

They are - besides the iterative approach - central for the growing success of UCD. The goal is a deep understanding for the real user.

What do they want?

What do they need?

In what terms/concepts do they think about “the system”?

What knowledge and abilities do they have?

What knowledge and abilities are missing?

In which situation/context are they using “the system”?

etc. ...


That is the state of the art ...for achieving better usability


Yes, you can do all of this in virtual worlds!

It doesn’t hurt

It doesn’t cost you and arm and a leg

It is actually helpful


Principles

You are Not the Audience!

Test

Test often

Use real users for your tests

Recruit them from your target audience

Believe your test results


Testing is not “prohibitively expensive“

Small tests are helpful

8 - 12 user tests usually find all the usability issues in a small system, usually

“No testing” is expensive!

Unusable projects waste your money

Fixing issues gets more and more expensivein later project stages


Rules of Thumb

Design for the Avatar, not for a human!

Do walk-throughs often!

Do fly-throughs, too!

Always make clear: Where am I? What can I do here? Where can I go from here? Where have I been?

Billboards are not necessarily evil


Will this still lead to cool projects?

You bet!


Discuss ...


The Fine Print

The ideas and concepts presented herein have been created by and are the property of The Otherland Group GmbH. They are protected by Copyright laws in Europe, the USA and other countries. The reproduction of this document and/or distribution to third parties - as a whole or in part - is strictly prohibited.

Kontakt: Markus Breuer

[email protected] +49 [ 170] 807 23 56http://www.otherland-group.com http://otherland.blogs.com

The Otherland GroupKöpenicker Str. 48/49 (DAZ)10179 Berlin-Mitte, Germany

Usability in Virtual Worlds (Metaverse08)

Business

Transcript of Usability in Virtual Worlds (Metaverse08)