Investigation of building virtual worlds with spatial design domain experts
| dc.contributor.author | Jung, Min Kyu | |
| dc.contributor.examiningcommittee | Gerhard, David (Computer Science) | |
| dc.contributor.examiningcommittee | Shields, Jason (Interior Design) | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Latulipe, Celine | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-08-21T20:14:37Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-08-21T20:14:37Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2024-08-19 | |
| dc.date.submitted | 2024-08-20T02:55:23Z | en_US |
| dc.degree.discipline | Computer Science | |
| dc.degree.level | Master of Science (M.Sc.) | |
| dc.description.abstract | The popularity of immersive web virtual worlds has increased as a result of the pandemic. Platforms like Gather, that still sees more than a million visitors quarterly post-pandemic, combined real-time video conferencing functionality with virtual worlds: multi-user virtual environments that function as virtual offices or social spaces. This combination has not only incorporated interactivity and engagement in the videoconferencing space but has also brought the capability of virtual world building to the masses, including to people without programming backgrounds. My research investigates the tools used for virtual world building, which are feature-rich creativity support tools. Given their availability, I want to understand how easy it is for non-programmers to use virtual world building tools to build virtual worlds, or more specifically, what the limitations of these virtual world building tools are by having users with backgrounds designing physical world spaces (such as architecture and interior design students) build virtual spaces. In this research, I investigate the technical challenges and creative limitations that such users experience, and how they troubleshoot their virtual world designs. The results show that participants are able to produce interesting virtual worlds with 2D virtual world authoring tools. However, advanced features appear to be too complicated to use consistently. This led to users sticking to basic features that they are familiar with. Additionally, users did not appear to test and debug their work frequently, if not at all. Based on these findings, I explain in what way these virtual world authoring tools frustrate users and produce design suggestions to improve creativity support for them. This thesis contributes results from the user study of non-programmer use of 2D virtual world authoring tools, provides evidence of user difficulty with juggling multiple toolchains and design suggestions to improve virtual world authoring experiences to democratize this digital craft. | |
| dc.description.note | October 2024 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1993/38404 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.rights | open access | en_US |
| dc.subject | Virtual worlds | |
| dc.subject | World-building | |
| dc.subject | Spatial world design | |
| dc.title | Investigation of building virtual worlds with spatial design domain experts | |
| dc.type | master thesis | en_US |
| local.subject.manitoba | no |