Multimodal Semiotics and Collaborative Design

inworld discussion about the costume bazaar design 21 . Often times, these inworld meetings
function as an idea sharing, testing and evaluation platform for the co-designers’ works (to be
assembled into the overall design of the sim), while in other cases the co- designers meet to create
and modify virtual objects together. In all cases, the visual semiotic function of having avatars in
designed places is also mentioned as helpful in presentation, testing and discussion of designs.
As I previously mentioned, SL’s constraints on collective ownership of virtual objects, and
collaborative modification of collectively made assemblages, result in particular forms of task
division among design teams. In the Metrotopia case, all objects were transferred to Aspen before
he placed them into the city, after which he transferred ownership to the research group. During
the resource collection phases, avatars often spent their times separated from each other. Real-time
collaboration was also used for evaluating, modifying and testing designs. Collaboration is
facilitated by various modalities, including text and voice chat, local, group or personal messaging,
avatar positions and actions in virtual space and object exchange between inventories.
The co-designers of PAL also mention the affordances for real-time collaboration and content
generation by using avatars in shared places. Shaggy claims what differentiates SL from other
graphical interfaces for digital content creation is being able to “feel like you are inside the
universe” and being able to represent visual presence as the way one wishes. He compares his
collaborative experience in SL to Microsoft Office, and claims that the real difference is “that you
really live inside the thing you’re creating.” For Xavier (PAL), importance of avatars in design
process results from their roles as visual referents: avatars “make the scale”, thus “you can actually
walk around your building.” Xavier’s emphasis on the role and importance of having a visual
reference to body scales may have been led by his professional background as an architect. His
experience with large-scale constructions requires knowledge of human body and its relations to
the physical environment as an essential component of the design process and a semiotic resource.
Although it is possible to model human-like objects located within the design and take renderings
(stills or animations) for presentation in some “professional tools” that Xavier mentions (i.e. 3D
Studio MAX, AutoCAD and Rhinoceros), some others afford creation of interactive virtual
environments (game engines such as Unity and Unreal). However, neither types of creative 3D
software afford multiple avatars to be present during the design process, as they are essentially 3D
modeling (or world-creation) software interfaces and not VWs or CVEs. In PAL, the central design
concept is based on the navigation of avatars within the virtual space that presents music-listening
as multimodal experience. During our interview, Curiza explains how he generated the initial idea
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Avatars from left to right: the chief designer of the project Aspen, me as the observer and part of the design team,
Caitlyn, the project manager of the research team who also chairs the discussion and Öykü, research assistant who
controls the camera that is recorded for analysis.
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