a-res.info

So I guess almost everyone who's going to read this post is aware of Linden Labs purchase of Avatars United and the assimilation of it's creative minds at Enemy Unknown. Speculation is rife as to what motivated this purchase, the grand avatar purge that counts Ener Hax amongst it casualties? Problems with scaling? Chances are no, and I'll tell you why.

Normally I don't talk about my research on my blog other than to advertise for participants, but in this instance I'll make an exception. Recently I've been conducting a few interviews on how people use Second Life to work together, they're still in the pilot stage, but the results I've been getting are really interesting. One issue that keeps coming up time and time again however is the lack of networking. People in Second Life who want to work with others are finding it hard to make that initial contact, they're struggling to introduce themselves - especially to people more respected than themselves, and they're needing to rely on external services such as Plurk and Twitter to do it. Rather than just an out of the blue IM, these external services allow a more sociable and effective approach to making contact. Linden must have surely been aware of this as the acquisition of a social networking site like Avatars United is a logical remedy to that problem.

Unfortunately this raises another issue. In cognitive ergonomics, there's what is known as the sticking-plaster approach to solving problems  - it's a quick, cheap, and easy solution - where you simply identify the problem, devise a new subsystem that solves it, and then whack it on top. Simple. The downside is, with each plaster you apply you run the risk of problems occurring in that too - so what do you do? Stick another plaster on top of that one, and so they start to pile up, creating a behemoth of spiralling and unmanageable complexity. The alternative is to rip out the system, or an aspect thereof, and redesign it from scratch. Obviously, this means that these solutions take longer, are more expensive, and can cause some short term disruptions for users who may need to adjust their work habits - but in return you get to keep the system simple and end up with an extremely effective long-term solution. With the possible exception of the promised 2.0 client, LL relies heavily on the former method, and the acquisition of AU is one such example. And just like we'd expect, this sticking plaster is already requiring some of its own - avatar verification, data loss, a constant stream of 'XXXXX has united with YYYYY' which completely spams out the informative content are just a few of the cracks forming.

Although I'm in no doubt that purchasing Avatars United was carried out with the interest of users in mind, it doesn't seem like the wisest of moves to make. I've already outlined how some existing aspects of Second Life could be redesigned in order to support a wider variety of relationships as well as enable networking opportunities, and I'm sure the folks at Linden could probably come up with a fair few of their own - it's just surprising that they've applied such a complex solution to a far simpler problem. It will be interesting to see how this story unfolds.

(Hopefully) Related posts:

1. Second Life and Poor User Centered Design Yes­ter­day I wrote a post about how copy­bot­ting can essen­tially be seen as the con­sequence of bad design, I spoke about how the design...
2. Initial Impressions of SL Viewer 2.0 So the next iter­a­tion of Second Life viewer has come along, and it’s look­ing mar­velous! I’m actu­ally really impressed. Here’s my quick run down...
3. Do you Collaborate in Second Life? Interviewees Needed As part of my ongo­ing PhD pro­ject, I’m look­ing to inter­view around a dozen or so people about how they use Second Life to...
4. Copybotting as ‘intentional human error’ I’ve been read­ing quite a lot of blog posts on the topic of copy­bot­ting recently. For those who don’t know, copy­bot­ting is the blanket...
5. A Tale of Two Avatars I’ve made no secret of the fact that my avatar, Az After­thought, was made espe­cially for my Second Life research. His pre­de­cessor, Aaron, was...