Dusan Writer's blog

Linden Lab has launched browser-based tutorials within the Second Life viewer.

The interface-based tutorials were tested against Orientation Island, and Erica Linden called the result of the test a "tie": new users who were directed to Orientation Island (OI) had "as successful" an experience as those who bypassed OI but were given the viewer with the tutorials.

The changes by the Lab suggest a focus on metrics and performance towards incremental improvements in the new user experience. By sending a sub-set of new sign-ups past Orientation Island yet arming them with the new tutorials, they were able to test the success of the interface-based help.

Orientation Island was notoriously difficult to update, and the HUD given to arrivals was often buggy or ineffective. By running the test, the Lab didn't see an improvement in new user stats, but because there was no DIFFERENCE were able to make the decision that browser-based tutorials would be easier to update, would not be hard-coded into the viewer, and the investment in Orientation Island could be shuttered in favor of other areas of attention.

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Rheta Shan was the winner of User Interface design contest and helped to re-imagine how the tools and menus of the Second Life client could be tailored to what a resident DOES rather than what the world offers.

Rheta's full entry was posted on her blog along with documentation and we put together a little Flash demo to give a sense of the entry.

But perhaps the contest achieved a wider purpose than selecting a winner. Jacek Antonelli's second place design, for example, brought a detailed breakdown of a proposed menu structure and a well-considered approach to inventory management.

Roy Cassini's third place entry introduced context-specific help as a way of both orienting the new user to the interface and to Second Life.

The judges were hard pressed to determine a winner. Vincent Nacon, Damien Fate and McCabe Maxsted each submitted entries that contributed insight and ideas that could go a long way to making the experience of Second Life (and by extension openSim) more intuitive and user-friendly.

Vint Falken, Eristic Strangelove, Ordinal Malaprop and Keystone Bouchard, the contest judges, deserve a special thanks for evaluating the entries.

At Metanomics, where the winners were announced, Adam Frisby followed the presentations with a discussion of Xenki, a viewer that is in the early stages of demonstrating that virtual worlds can be rendered in a browser. As Adam pointed out, when it comes to the interface, more choice is a good thing, and he envisioned a day when users can select a viewer, and then tailor that viewer's "skin" and menus to their particular needs.

What's clear is that the talents of the community, whether the contestants who thought through the user-facing interface, or the initiatives within the openSim community, are putting passion and effort into the continued improvement of the virtual world experience.

The panel at Metanomics suggested that support by Linden Lab through the articulation of a long-term road map for the viewer and interface will further help to focus the efforts of resident developers, along with ways to improve the integration of patches.

While the viewer is one piece in the larger puzzle of improving the new user experience and increasing retention, clearly there are ideas, energy and a devoted resident community willing and actively participating in this process.

Mark Kingdon announced the appointment of Frank Ambrose as Head of Global Technology, according to Bloomberg Technology.

"To develop computer systems, Linden named Frank Ambrose as senior vice president of global technology. Ambrose was previously head of technology for infrastructure and network services at Time Warner Inc.'s AOL."

The Linden Lab press room is strangely absent with an announcement of its own.

Dusan Writer's Metaverse.

The rumours are true: Google's plan to make a play in virtual worlds was unveiled today with the launch of Lively, their competing platform to Second Life and in particular, during its beta phase at least, other virtual social spaces. Google's platform will run in a browser, differentiating it from client-centric worlds like Second Life and can be embedded in a Web site.

According to CNET, however, Google says that their virtual world is not intended a separate destination but rather something that integrates with "real life":

"It's integrated with the Internet. It's not an alternate destination," said Niniane Wang, Google's engineering manager for the project. "Our intention is to add to your existing life."

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