Multimodal Semiotics and Collaborative Design

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‣ Communication and Design in Virtual Worlds Workshop observations and focus group interviews with students Methods of data production showed variations from case to case, depending on the availability of resources and possible level of engagement with participants including geographical distance, project time schedules, etc. This section and the next section will outline the strategies and methods for the production of qualitative data from case-studies, and the ways in which I sampled the three collaborative design cases from within the social world of SL. Production of the qualitative data I aim to analyze how they reflect on the perceived affordances and limitations of the virtual world, including the socially available semiotic and material resources, user interface and external relations with the surrounding new media landscape. I use observations of collaborative design processes and interviews with participants as professional and amateur builders, and non-builders as the main data sources. The empirical data produced from the cases is supported with interviews and semi-structured conversations with VW experts, professional platform and content developers and archival records on related VW and CVE technologies. Expert interviews and supporting ethnographic data are also used to support the case-study data. Due to the social context of each project, my role in the research processes changed from an apprentice/learner to a tutor/teacher, and an interviewer. However, the use of mixed methods for data production in these three case studies provided an overall mapping of the VW’s affordances and constraints for collaborative design, and how residents make sense of them for co-producing various types of digital content 5 . Based on the main research question, several topics of interest for categorization of the escalating amount of data have raised, which gave way to the development of the aforementioned operational questions. Operational questions were also developed to guide the interviews as well as the categorization and coding of field notes and other data sources. Interventions and re-assessment of empirical categories, as well as methods of triangulation and validation, were reconsidered during different stages of the process, following the analytical strategies of GTM. Follow-up interviews and long-term partnerships with some of the participants enabled access to cases in various ‘moments’ 5 In addition to the observations from these 3 case studies, another major resource of expert knowledge was collected from a number of interviews and semi-structured recorded conversations during my visiting scholarship at Stanford University’s Human-Sciences and Technologies Advanced Research Institute (H-STAR). During my stay, I had the chance to meet with Virtual Worlds, Web3D, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality experts as well as platform and content developers, professional users and communities such as digital fabrication specialists, builders, performance artists and educators. Although these resources are not included as empirical data here, inspirations from these conversations with VW experts and technology developers are often integrated into my arguments, especially found helpful to discuss the further implications of findings on larger socio-technical scales. 125
of collaboration. Participant observation throughout the design process also provides insights on the changing roles of various actors during several inworld and offline stages of the process (Hine 2005, Deacon et al. 2007). Furthermore, by participating in collaborative design and learning activities, it is possible to gain first-hand experience on content design, while conducting ethnographical observations of SL builders and builder communities in their cultural contexts. On the other hand, I aim to initiate discussions on the past experiences and reflections on ‘how it could have been done better’ by in-depth interviews with expert designers and novice users (students) after the design process, when the designs are open for testing and evaluation. Especially during the focus group interviews with students after the workshop design process, participants establish unprecedented relations between SL’s affordances and their experiences, and generated a number of ideas on how building tools and resources should have been developed. The selection of the three cases also depends on the contextual variations of collaborative design projects and the characteristics of the social actors who participate in their making. Similarities and differences in how expert designers and novice users of SL is particularly of interest for my analytical purposes. As it was documented in a number of research studies before, creating content in SL requires a significant amount of knowledge, experience and effort. This forms a challenge especially for beginners who are trying to cope up with this intricate ‘learning-curve’ that is caused by the complexity of the building tools, as well as the time investment needed to get familiar with SL’s social norms and resources (i.e. Sanchez 2009, Pfeil et al. 2009). Therefore, observing various interpretations of and solutions to the learning-curve supports the analysis, as this perspective includes how specific affordances and limitations are perceived by novice and expert users, and how these affordances and limitations affect their collaborative design processes. In order to capture the social complexity of collaborative design activities in SL, a wide range of interconnected interpretive methods are employed during different stages of the research process, as “no single methods can grasp all the subtle variations in ongoing human experience” (Denzin and Lincoln 2005: 12). The qualitative analysis is based on the multimodal data produced as a collection of field notes, image and video captures, face-to-face and online interviews, focus groups, semi-structured conversations and various archives. The data is handled with an abductive and grounded theoretical perspective, in which a continuous resonance of empirical findings and theoretical categories lead to intensive coding and analysis procedures for production of meaningful conclusions. In the introduction to their influential handbook on qualitative research, Norman Denzin and Yvonna Lincoln (2005) describe the research process by using the ‘bricolage’ metaphor, which defines an approach that crosscuts several disciplines, fields and subject matters as well as 126
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Prologue ‘So it isn’t the origi
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Multimodal Semiotics and Collaborat
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CHAPTER 3. Social semiotics, multim
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Official and third party viewers
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List of Figures Figure 4.1 Domains
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List of Tables Table 2. 1 Theories
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1. Introduction Virtual places and
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technologies introduce new social w
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innovation studies researchers have
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contextual factors of collaborative
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creative collaboration, and creativ
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In a multimodal and multi-method ap
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three case studies. This chapter al
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2. Perspectives in virtual worlds r
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making. In fact, it is possible to
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virtual world technologies, it sign
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collaborative actions that span qui
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mediated social interaction with ot
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their perceived effects on networke
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ackdrop for the understanding of us
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multidisciplinary working (Gu et al
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Socio-cultural perspectives on co-d
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innovation differs from Bonsu and D
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In a place-centric socio-semiotic v
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Theoretical Categories Concepts and
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3. Social semiotics, multimodality
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3.1. The social semiotic approach t
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structures and analyzing the contex
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designers’ purposeful orchestrati
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communication as an essential semio
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aspects of multimodal entities for
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and-paste logic of online media, th
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from the meaning-making practices,
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and Turner 2004). Social Informatic
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From this perspective, to build (an
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human action unfolds in ‘three-di
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genius loci idea to virtual places,
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Michael de Certeau’s (1984) analy
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semiotic practices, in all kinds of
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follow similar considerations of ex
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comparatively analyzing the multimo
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Here, the relevant question for pos
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3.6. Conclusion: social semiotics a
Page 88 and 89: Theoretical Categories Concepts and
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Page 92 and 93: elations. One example of the formal
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Page 96 and 97: Research for design aims to provide
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Page 100 and 101: In sum, I consider affordances and
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Page 104 and 105: A solely production-based account o
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Page 112 and 113: Meaning-oriented design theories
Page 114 and 115: As explained in the Introduction ch
Page 116 and 117: The multimodal social semiotic appr
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Page 120 and 121: From multimodal analysis, I draw ce
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Page 124 and 125: My analytical framework includes a
Page 126 and 127: characteristics of design in virtua
Page 128 and 129: 6. Methodology Introduction This ch
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Page 140 and 141: perspectives and methods. The evolu
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Page 144 and 145: material resources either by visiti
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Page 158 and 159: 7.1. The social actors and configur
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Page 162 and 163: Curiza as the owner of the sim and
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Page 166 and 167: For Curiza, the hardest part of bei
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Page 170 and 171: interviews, combined with findings
Page 172 and 173: Comparisons with game experiences a
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Page 180 and 181: The variety of comments from the wo
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inworld discussion about the costum
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“reminds the sounding of the word
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Although Shaggy’s perspective abo
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For Caitlyn, the major advantage of
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PAL’s design. According to AmyLee
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shared or collaborative edited by m
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collaborative practices in order to
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8. Analyzing multimodal discourse i
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these places, their elevations and
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(Rank-scale/ EXPERIENTIAL / INTERPE
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Superheroes. Caitlyn, whose needs a
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Figure 8.1. View from Metrotopia: T
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Although Metrotopia was specificall
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The Fight Club Dojo is designed to
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Caitlyn: [W]e wanted to advertise,
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of expression and reception of digi
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In Curiza’s comment the introduct
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textual functions of the content (m
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their interest in such metaphors fo
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Synthesis of the findings on experi
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Caitlyn: [L]ooking at what makes up
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Curiza: I told Xavier “Xavier I w
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0 Figure 8.22. (left) Metrotopia Pa
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and posters with positive political
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Synthesis of the findings on interp
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Figure 8.26. (left) The draw-bridge
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Use of prims as semiotic units is m
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Modes and multimodal design element
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Xavier: It was very, EXTREMELY colo
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Texts and images are often used tog
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placement of various interactive lo
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9. Conclusions and discussions 9.1.
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and the lack of prior experience, p
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in flux in inworld collaborative de
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potentials, and aim to reinforce th
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Although not all of the co-designer
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As mentioned in the literature surv
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Drawing on this point, I also consi
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(Kress, 2010). The analysis of the
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although he also acknowledges the r
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creative activities and reduce the
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Further directions for research The
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Bakhtin, M.M. (1986). Speech, genre
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Charmaz, K., (2002). Qualitative in
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Fischer, G. and Giaccardi, E., (200
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Halliday, M.A.K. (2007). Language a
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Jones, J.C., (2009). What is design
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Lemke, J.L. (2005). Place, pace and
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Norman, D.A. (2008). The way I see
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Reinhard, C. D., & Dervin, B. (2010
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Thackara, J. (2005). In the bubble:
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Summary in English Computer-generat
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Dansk resumé af afhandlingen Compu
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Interview Guide (Metrotopia and PAL
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Multimodal Semiotics and Collaborative Design

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