Multimodal Semiotics and Collaborative Design

uilders, because when you build a lot you have your own habits.” Curiza, who describes himself
as a very active networker, mentions a “very simple little thing” that required him to change his
working methods as: “when you work like I do in there, and you have a friend list with a few
hundred people (…) And it’s often maybe only 3 persons that I really need to talk to. I can’t find
out who are online, and when. Are they online now” For builders like Shaggy, AmyLee and
Xavier, such conventions and habits provide a solution space for the design problems they are
facing, and such changes could mean investing more time and effort into learning than into
building. Use of the viewer show variations from user to user, and differences between a builder’s
perspective and a non-builder’s perspective on the changes would depend on their specific needs
and expectations from the interface. As AmyLee expresses: “there is no SL without the viewer, the
limitations of SL reflects in the viewer, that's all.”
Tools for content generation and their affordances
In order to become a content generator in SL, users have to interact with another (relatively more
complicated) part of the viewer interface, which could be found under the “build” menu. Through
the use of this particular interface, users of SL are allowed to design virtual objects 10 (the smallest
structural unit of which is called a prim), apply textures and scripts to the prims, and modify
objects in virtual space through either numerical entries or manual commands.
Although several other types of content generation practices exist in SL 11 , a fundamental
component of the building affordances is the primitive system. In the official SL Wiki 12 a primitive,
or prim, is defined as a “single-part object” which is “represented by a set of parameters,
including shape/type, position, scale/size, rotation, cut, hollow, twist, shear, etc.” Prims consist of
standard three-dimensional geometric shapes, such as cube, sphere, cylinder or cone. In figure 2,
pictograms of standard prims can be seen on the upper right corner, with each shape representing
a particular type of prim. Similar to the overall GUI, the design interface of the viewer reflects a
multimodal organization of forms and functions: textual, numerical and graphical elements are
used to differentiate various forms of information. Colors and shapes of functional areas are
designed to present close proximity in relation to their hierarchies. As mentioned before, prims are
the primary geometric units of construction that enable the users (as designers/builders) to create
simple virtual objects, which can later be transformed into complex artifacts and places through
10
Although it is possible for any ‘newbie’ to begin generating content in designated places (sandboxes) and save a copy of
their creations to share with others, it should also be noted that advanced level builder-ship in SL requires certain
investments, such as owning a land/sim on which one’s creations can be placed for others to use.
11
Such as script and texture making, and integration of new building technologies such as sculpted prims and Mesh file
imports, in addition to the default prim system. However, these other techniques were not used as a part of the design in
the three projects, therefore, I discuss the co-designers’ reasons for their exclusion rather than detailing their
affordances.
12
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Primitive
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