Vectorform submits landmarks and navigation beta for Second Life

by Tateru Nino Oct 2nd 2008 at 9:00PM

Filed under: Betas, News items, Second Life, Virtual worlds

As you may already know from the buzz back in April when the project kicked off (just prior to Kingdon's hiring as freshly minted CEO of Linden Lab), the global interactive design firm Vectorform was contracted by Linden Lab to undertake the Landmarks and Navigation project, essentially completely reworking the way landmarks (a kind of virtual-environment version of Web bookmarks/favorites) are handled in Second Life.

The project adds a new user-interface element to the screen that applies Web-style browsing semantics (forward/back/location) to virtual environment positions. Vectorform say that they recently submitted a beta of the modification to Linden Lab and are awaiting QA (Quality Assurance) feedback.

Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.

We're a little dubious as to whether the change will make handling navigation in the virtual environment more or less intuitive. Based on the designs we've seen so far, we're inclined to think less, but we'd rather reserve judgement until we have had a chance to get our hands on a build of the software and try it out for ourselves. Certainly the addition of a teleport history that is persistent across sessions is not unwelcome.

Unfortunately as is so often the case, by the time the code is in the hands of the users, things will be more or less set in stone, so even if it doesn't work as well as what is presently available, we expect the new system to be retained. Once everything's been bought and paid for, integrated and run through QA, it tends to become rather difficult to give up, or to alter substantively.

We'll just have to wait and see how it works out.

While Vectorform have been described as an "award-winning" firm (not least by company president and co-founder Kurt Steckling and by Linden Lab's new CEO Mark Kingdon), they hastened to assure us that the description is inaccurate, and that the firm has as-yet received no such awards, and that any statements to the contrary may be "outdated information." [Vectorform has subsequently contacted us to let us know that this was based on poor information that we had received]

Vectorform was unwilling to confirm that any future work is planned with Linden Lab.

Tags: betas, linden-lab, mark-kingdon, second-life, sl-landmarks-and-navigation, vectorform, virtual-worlds

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jay said on 11:47PM 10-02-2008

Hmm, no tools menu and about as relevant as a cigarette lighter inside a non-smoking section!

Well, last night I abandoned two regions back to the Lindens as I mentioned I would last time I posted, they have lost the plot completely and their virtual world and their imagination is now dead to me.

I guess I will watch from the sidelines and occasionally comment.

I did send an email to M Linden telling him the reason he lost my small US$1,000 per month account, but I guess I am just small fry to him.

Tateru Nino said on 11:48PM 10-02-2008

We believe that the CEO's email is filtered by a PA before going to his personal mailbox, so it is uncertain as to whether the message was received.

Jacek Antonelli said on 12:00AM 10-03-2008

I too will reserve judgement on the UI widget itself until I get to try it, but I have to say that Vectorform showed a remarkable willingness to adjust designs based on user feedback during the design process this past spring.

So, yeah, it likely won't change much after it's released, but at least the design they set out to implement was the result of research and refinement based on user feedback. That much can't be said for most of LL's in-house UI work.

Prokofy said on 12:38AM 10-03-2008

Um, I'm failing to see why we all need to "reserve judgement". This is bad. I've blogged extensively about some of their bad thinking already -- their original bright idea was to deprecate Picks completely, and remove landmarks as objects in inventory completely, until finally they got the message that this was really not wanted by residents -- but it shouldn't have ever even happened, if they were paying attention to start with.

This screen shot here had better be a pop-up or sub-menu, because if this is the main view of the browser, I will be screaming my head off.

There's no SEARCH. There has to be a SEARCH box. I think they should ditch SEARCH ALL on the main view, as it turns up loads of junk, in favour of one SEARCH button in the middle top that leads to all the tabs, including Search All, but most importantly PLACES. This is what is needed for exploration and commerce. Any destruction of that basic functionality of SL, as we saw on Jacek's one prototype, for example, is absolutely the wrong way to go.

I also don't need to know the sim I was just on. You know why? Because...I already know which sim I was just on, the SLURL now is included in the chat, if I have a burning need to go "backspace".

Second Life is not the web. Second Life is not a web page. It is a world. It needs landmarks as objects, and it doesn't need a lot of extraneous browser-like functionality with excess previous teleport information.

Barney Boomslang said on 5:39AM 10-03-2008

This must be the most moronic idea on user interfaces I ever seen. Sorry, a "back/forth" metapher for teleporting and locations? That's completely insane and breaks with _any_ form of understanding a new resident might get from a virtual world. Note the word "world" in that sentence. This is no friggin website.

I guess I know why that "award winning company" didn't get any award, yet: they regurgitate old metaphors for the wrong places. There is nothing new on that idea - it's just applying something to a virtual world because the designer who made that change doesn't have a clue what a virtual world is about.

The labs idea on landmarks might not have been perfect, but it was as good as I ever have seen it addressed - landmarks as tangible objects you can give others and pass around, like you can do in RL with snippets of paper with addresses written on it. The only thing that might be needed would be a better UI for management of the collection of landmarks in your inventory (which btw. you can organize in folders) on the big map window - so you can navigate your large collection efficiently.

But what really kills me is the stupid idea of back/forth buttons. What should they go to if you walked from one place to the other? where will they end up if parcels or sims are telehubbed? It's just stupid.

TigroSpottystripes Katsu said on 11:04AM 10-03-2008

any info about them being award-winning is outdated, they haven't got any awards yet...

I wonder what will happen when SL hits 88K concurrency...we're gonna see some serious shit I guess... (btw is there a Doc Linden or a McFly Linden?)

Yo Brewster said on 11:31AM 10-03-2008

The way Landmarks work today is horrible and a "browser like" way of storing and accessing Landmarks (should be called favorites if you ask me) would be welcomed by nearly everyone. I do believe a search engine approach would be perfect. I want to see my teleport history, I want to use a back button, I want the search box right on top. Once the SL client will feel like a browser, new users will feel less lost when they first enter the world of Second Life.

Yo Brewster said on 11:33AM 10-03-2008

LOL - I meant a browser like approach, not search engine approach. It's clearly time for the weekend! :)

Thud said on 2:38PM 10-03-2008

@Jay: The Tools menu is not gone, it's hiding. We have the option (right now, in the current viewer) to have the Tools menu only display while in build mode to help clean up the menu clutter.

@this post: Yes, please. I like this idea...(*gasp* did he just say that??) I could see it being very useful when I'm 'browsing' search results. Of course, the idea of "landmarks" should remain untouched but is there really any difference between handing out a 'landmark' and a 'bookmark?'

As long as this is only adding new functions and not removing old ones there is nothing to complain about.

Crystal Falcon said on 3:13PM 10-04-2008

/me giggles, doesn't this look exactly like what the BijoRewind HUD does?

Well, that gives you a back button, history and favs... :-)

I don't understand why a few are complaining, this looks like wonderful additions, so we don't have to find and buy a hud, it will come free, and it will be far less confusing for new people...I can remember not knowing how to ever get back to someplace I had been before, until someone taught me how to make a LM, why not make it work like something everyone is already familiar with? ;-)

And you can't create a LM from the map? Or from a search result? And they don't move with you but point to where your location USED to be?

I also SO wish there was a reload button for those textures that are fuzzy, or AV's that stay Ruthed (now wisped), or gray or missing image. Sadly afaik there isn't a hud for that is there? ;-) LOL, should I make one? Green text will say "Reload HUD: Please rebake and go into appearance everyone!"

Moriz Gupte said on 1:57PM 10-05-2008

I have been thinking about navigation problems in virtual worlds accessible through desktops for a while. The solution I proposed is described here (it's a pdf).

http://snipurl.com/43hcv

I am hoping these thoughts can encourage others to get better ideas and feel motivated enough to implement them. It's slightly more involved than what Vectorform proposes but I have some eval results to support what I proposed. Feel free to contact me if you want to participate in a collaborative dev effort.