Adaptive Path Blog

A very interesting opportunity recently presented itself to us. Linden Labs, the creators of Second Life, called with a question about how they can improve certain aspects of the “in-world” experience.

Quite a few of us have experience in online and console worlds, so this is a pretty exciting opportunity. We knew that there were plenty of dedicated residents out there who have strong opinions about the world they live in. We also knew that working with the people at Linden would be a lot of fun and a unique experience.

So, after we spoke with them for a while, we discovered that, while there may be a few issues with the world and it’s amazing growth rate, there is one issue in particular that’s affecting the usability for the residents. While I can’t divulge the exact issue, I can say that it’s a very complex and interesting problem -– something that we’ve not tackled in this manner before.

While Adaptive Path doesn’t have a prescribed set of generic tasks that are applied to every project, there are a certain amount of given generalities that frame an approach. Start with research and discovery, move to analysis, prototype and test, then build.

At least, that’s how we’d do it in the real world…

But this is Second Life, the three-dimensional, online world which is “imagined created and owned by its residents”. This is not some lab where we could watch behind a double mirror, or a website where we could begin with remote research screening. These were people, but in a different place and, quite literally, a different world.

So, how do we approach this project? Well, since our users are residents in this world, we think it will be good to work with them in-world. Speak with them in the environment in which they live. Ask questions and do research totally immersed in the surroundings that they care about and work hard at creating and maintaining.

This is going to be different for us…and for Linden Labs. We’re going to be blogging about this on a near daily level. We want to try this experiment and immerse you in the project with us as well. We’ll talk as much as we can about the problems we’re working on, but also explain how we’re altering our techniques to match those of a different playing field. You’ll hear about the successes and failures and watch as we conduct this project out in the open.

It’s going to be an interesting and very exciting project for us. Stay tuned!

Fo those interested in Second Life, check out www.secondlife.com. You can download the client, sign up for an account and join us and over 3.6 million other residents right now.

To find us, look for me (Andrew Ophelia), Chiara (Andromache Ayers) and Brian (Ciardan Flanagan) and come say hi!

This entry was posted on Friday, February 16th, 2007 at 11:17 am and is filed under Second Life Case Study. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.