Multimodal Semiotics and Collaborative Design

interviews, combined with findings from participant ethnography and design observations, the
analysis on place semiotics focuses on a particular aspect of the collaborative design activity: I
intend to discuss the role of environmental factors (i.e. platforms, interfaces, tools, resources) in
making of virtual places.
Second Life as graphical user interface (GUI)
Engagement in SL requires installment and use of particular software, called the viewer, instead of
the conventional Web browsers. The official SL viewer has been developed by California-based
Linden Lab. New versions of this viewer has been released and updated multiple times since my
empirical studies began. These developments in SL’s viewer and contents of the world have been
included as topics of discussion with participants. Therefore, I aim to frame the analysis by not
only a list of the currently available affordances and constraints but also interpret the social
discourses that result in their use. In figure 5.1, I review a snapshot from SL viewer version 1(.23.5),
which was the default viewer until 2011, in order to illustrate how the interactive elements of the
user interface are presented to users.
As seen below in the figure, SL as user interface bears a significant complexity –relatively more
than modern web browsers- in terms of how options are laid out graphically, and how commands
from the GUI would be translated to the virtual environment and to actions of the avatar. By using
specific functions on the GUI, users are able to navigate in virtual places, interact with virtual
objects and avatars, socialize with virtual communities and create new content. The layout of the
graphical elements is organized to make structurally and functionally related elements closer and
visually linked (detailed menus on top bar), while functional groupings (buttons, pop-up menus,
chat, the virtual environment) are modally differentiated. Multimodality is apparent through not
only the use of text and images but also by the purposeful organization of colors, transparency and
geometric elements to signify particular functions.
Moreover, the virtual environment that is being operated through the GUI is considered as
fundamentally multimodal. The users are able to experience movement and co-presence within
interactive virtual environments that signify spatial experiences with images as well as audio-visual
media and other modes of digital representation.
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