For virtual worlds, user interface design is also always social interaction design. When users are interacting with the system, they are often at the same time interacting with other users. Bob reckons that UI designers for virtual worlds do not seem to have fully grasped the social implications of this fact. He says, “For example, when standing avatar to avatar, if you ask me, ‘Did you get the sword?’ and I promptly open my inventory[ 2], that command and UI action are relevant parts of the social interactional context. Or if I say, ‘Let’s go,’ and you promptly open your map, that’s a relevant next action I should know about. Perhaps you don’t know the way. Perhaps you’re about to propose a particular route. At the very least, I can see that you’re not ready to start running toward the destination and I should wait.”
In almost all current virtual worlds, taking actions like opening your inventory or your map triggers no publicly visible cues, only private cues for the individual user. Conclusion—we not only need to give the individual user feedback about what the system is doing, but we also need to give the other players feedback about what the individual user is doing. In other words, users’ interactions with the system should be made public.
Sometimes it is necessary to compensate for differences between avatars and real human bodies. Unlike in real life, most people tend to play virtual worlds with their camera view zoomed back so they can see their avatars, rather than in true first-person view, where you can only occasionally see your hands or legs. There are a
couple of good reasons for this. Computer screens don’t allow for peripheral vision. But pulling back the camera can help mitigate this limitation by widening the field of view. Similarly, avatars don’t allow for proprio-ception, or our awareness of the positions of our body. Zooming back the camera also helps players deal with this fact. The point is that I may think my avatar is waving like the Queen of England because I typed /wave/, but it’s hard to be sure if I can’t see my avatar. Maybe I mistyped the command, or maybe the animation associated with the command actually looks more like a New Yorker hailing a taxi cab than Her Royal Highness acknowledging her subjects.
Quasi-synchronous chat lags behind synchronous avatar motion. Most virtual world conversations take place through chat. The avatars may be wandering about, flicking their fabulous hair like Valley Girls, sashaying confidently and gesturing theatrically, but chat does not come out as audio from the mouth of the avatar. One problem this causes is discontinuity, a lack of congruence, between action and uttered words.
Bob points out that typing a chat message is another kind of action that other players should know about. He recounts a case in which a team of players are about to attack a group of “mobs,” or computer-controlled opponents. While one player is composing a question about how the team might change its tactics, a fellow player initiates combat. The tactical question then publicly appears too late. The quasi-synchronous chat lags behind the synchronous avatars.
[ 2] Your inventory is basically your treasure chest. It holds everything that you build, own, and need.
May + June 2008
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