Multimodal Semiotics and Collaborative Design

7.1. The social actors and configurations of the design teams
One general aim of this chapter is to present the findings on social contexts of the collaborative
design projects. Therefore, the first part of the analysis focuses on the social actors, who contribute
to co-production practices. First, I outline the profiles actors in the three case-studies by
particularly focusing on their purposes and motivations for engaging in collaborative design
projects, and the competences that they find relevant in shaping their experiences. In some cases,
these competences refer to the past experiences with MMORPGs or 3D modeling software; whereas
for some designers, their meaning-makings are shaped by their professional identities. I also
discuss the possible semiotic relations between these individual conditions of engaging and the
ways in which the co-designers make sense of the potential affordances and constraints of different
platforms. The discussion of findings for each case study continues with the findings on the social
organization of co-design teams, particularly focusing on the power relations and the division of
tasks among the co-designers.
Metrotopia and interdisciplinary collaboration in design of a virtual laboratory
The Metrotopia project includes the design and building processes of a virtual laboratory in SL,
which was created to facilitate both research and education activities on virtual worlds, design,
communication and media studies. The project team in the Metrotopia case includes two
interdisciplinary groups contributing in different stages and levels of the design process: the
research team, who often met at the university in person to discuss the general purposes and
requirements; and the design team, who generated, evaluated and modified the design of the
virtual city. The two teams shared members, although their processes were not necessarily always
synchronized.
The process was initiated by a professional contract between the research team and Aspen, who
was the head of design. Roles and responsibilities of the actors, requirements of the design project
and several deadlines for different tasks and the overall project were described in detail in this
official document. According to the contract, Caitlyn was the client of the design which would be
run in the sim owned by the research project, and Aspen was the chief designer in charge. Since
this project began in 2009, which was the beginning of my first year in PhD, I was both
participating in simple building tasks, finding alternative design resources from the Web for Aspen
and Caitlyn to evaluate, and learning how to use various tools by the help of Aspen.
Caitlyn is an American post-doc researcher who was working in Denmark for the time being, and
conducting research on virtual worlds, computer and video games with a methodological focus on
people’s sense-makings in their engagements with various technologies. Caitlyn’s first introduction
145