Multimodal Semiotics and Collaborative Design

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although he also acknowledges the role of amateur spirit. A similar challenge was also observed in all three case-studies about different aspects and tools. This challenge may be explained by SL’s inclusive approach to present creative socio-technical affordances by using a single contentgeneration system in order to facilitate various types of co-production activities. In doing so, the balance of complexity and usability aims to provide an innovative-yet- comprehensible toolkit to all content designers, often at the expense of not properly accommodating expert and professional users and their full creative capabilities. Another problem with this so-called balance is the challenges that the newcomers face when they begin learning how to use the prim system. The analysis of the workshop case showed that the students needed intensive supervision and during the processes, mainly because of the problems with the content generation system. Generation of the places and artifacts as sign systems takes place not only between co-designers of virtual places and artifacts, but also between platform developers and various other (inworld and online) content communities. The co- designers are in many ways limited by the constraints placed by Linden Lab, and bound by their institutional (legal and organizational) restrictions. Content types, file formats and delivery methods are possible within systematized boundaries. The prim system can also present many challenges and limitations, as shown in the workshop project, when the designers do not have enough experience and/or competence in using the design tools. Use of the prim system requires a multimodal interaction with the graphical user interface; but equally importantly, it requires a special type of cognitive activity, which is the three-dimensional segregation of complex shapes into basic geometric primitives, such as cubes or cylinders. My analysis also showed that using prims to generate content is found as a complex endeavor by some co-designers, who chose to contribute the team in various other ways. The observations with the design teams in three cases, and particularly the comments of several workshop student as well as Caitlyn from Metrotopia and Curiza from PAL cases illustrated the many possible limitations that some SL users perceive. This perspective also has implications for the platform developers and the designers of VWs, as the fluidity of the notion affordance and the exponentially challenging limitations of the learning curve for beginners could endanger the foundation for meaningful places and artifacts to mediate communication. Practical implications for platform and content developers Therefore, systemic functional analysis of SL as a collaborative platform can also have certain implications for further development of VW platforms, especially when developers aim to emphasize affordances for co-production of user-generated content and user-driven innovation. In this view, not only the visual characteristics of virtual places are important, but also is the general semiotic coherence among the experiential, interpersonal and textual potentials. The analysis 253
suggests that it is important for the co-design processes to consider how the platform affords participation, communication and collaboration among various social actors with different social backgrounds and interests (i.e. geographical location, time-zone, RL occupations), how it provides places and tools for both synchronous and asynchronous design interaction, and how it utilizes the users’ creative problem-solving skills in order to create communities of ‘makers’. An important factor in creation of co-production experience in SL is the movements of avatars and content between connected virtual places. It is important for such platforms to afford collaborative design practices to unfold in various time-scales (hetechrony) among various (virtual and physical) places. For instance, the analyses showed that the co-designers often prefer to work alone, although they are aware of the affordances for real-time collaboration in a shared virtual space by using their avatars to walk and fly around the object of design. Although avatars and virtual objects afford this certain type of interaction, it is not only the real-time ‘design by walking around’ method and digital co-presence in shared virtual space that presents SL as a complex nexus of creative practices. It is beneficial to the VW designers when the platform offers places and affordances for users to be involved in progression of design, at the same time allowing the co-designers to have their collaborative and private spaces to think, experiment, try and fail. Thus, it is important to consider how a VW platform provides places, tools and resources for not only collaborative (realtime) content generation, but also asynchronous presentation, evaluation, testing and modification of designs. Another important issue is how the platform provides tools that would balance ‘complexity of use’ and ‘freedom to create’ for a wide range of creative users. As demonstrated by the workshop students it is beneficial to the VW designers when the platform provides them with adequate resources (i.e. libraries, tutorials, search tools, community platforms, external Web resources) and support the development of innovative new design solutions. The semiotic association of ‘prims’ with LEGO modular toy series is a good analogy to illustrate how primitive structural elements can provide designers with larger solution spaces. The affordances of prim system for the construction of complex shapes by geometric combinations of simple objects provide a shared resource to think with; at the same time, the combinations of prims, textures and animations present meaningmaking as an alternative design tool. However, as the analysis demonstrates, the interpretations of the co-designers of the prim system may be subjective, and a perceived affordance for a professional user may be interpreted as a limitation by a novice designer, or vice versa. As an alternative approach, limiting the potential affordances and constraints to emphasize a particular user group, such as professional architects/designers or amateur builders could help build interestspecific content groups. On the other hand, such an approach may reduce the possible range of 254
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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
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Theoretical Categories Concepts and
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4. Theory and practice in design re
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elations. One example of the formal
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traditional distinctions between de
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Research for design aims to provide
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potentially offers to our senses. D
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In sum, I consider affordances and
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It is certainly important that desi
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A solely production-based account o
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design problems, while its variatio
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user-driven innovations. Von Hippel
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institutional contexts (Grossen 200
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Meaning-oriented design theories
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As explained in the Introduction ch
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The multimodal social semiotic appr
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them, and (b) experiential and inte
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From multimodal analysis, I draw ce
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phenomenology of time and space (an
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My analytical framework includes a
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characteristics of design in virtua
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6. Methodology Introduction This ch
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multimodal analysis in virtual worl
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sensibilities, and methods of analy
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are contextualized by the socio-tec
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perspectives as the primary source
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‣ Communication and Design in Vir
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perspectives and methods. The evolu
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designers are not necessarily geogr
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material resources either by visiti
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and selection of participants in co
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also the reason why this case study
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within each consequent case study,
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created/constituted in the situated
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than make overall statements and ge
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in-depth qualitative understanding
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7.1. The social actors and configur
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The core design team consists of Ca
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Curiza as the owner of the sim and
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and appreciation. He says “if you
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For Curiza, the hardest part of bei
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context 5 . On the other hand, this
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interviews, combined with findings
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Comparisons with game experiences a
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modification, combination and appro
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Shaggy, who recommends designers to
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he often used the Internet for “f
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The variety of comments from the wo
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technological developments but also
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the four Moons group, a few members
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esource for inspiration. Such inter
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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
Page 216 and 217: Caitlyn: [W]e wanted to advertise,
Page 218 and 219: of expression and reception of digi
Page 220 and 221: In Curiza’s comment the introduct
Page 222 and 223: textual functions of the content (m
Page 224 and 225: their interest in such metaphors fo
Page 226 and 227: Synthesis of the findings on experi
Page 228 and 229: Caitlyn: [L]ooking at what makes up
Page 230 and 231: Curiza: I told Xavier “Xavier I w
Page 232 and 233: 0 Figure 8.22. (left) Metrotopia Pa
Page 234 and 235: and posters with positive political
Page 236 and 237: Synthesis of the findings on interp
Page 238 and 239: Figure 8.26. (left) The draw-bridge
Page 240 and 241: Use of prims as semiotic units is m
Page 242 and 243: Modes and multimodal design element
Page 244 and 245: Xavier: It was very, EXTREMELY colo
Page 246 and 247: Texts and images are often used tog
Page 248 and 249: placement of various interactive lo
Page 250 and 251: 9. Conclusions and discussions 9.1.
Page 252 and 253: and the lack of prior experience, p
Page 254 and 255: in flux in inworld collaborative de
Page 256 and 257: potentials, and aim to reinforce th
Page 258 and 259: Although not all of the co-designer
Page 260 and 261: As mentioned in the literature surv
Page 262 and 263: Drawing on this point, I also consi
Page 264 and 265: (Kress, 2010). The analysis of the
Page 268 and 269: creative activities and reduce the
Page 270 and 271: Further directions for research The
Page 272 and 273: Bakhtin, M.M. (1986). Speech, genre
Page 274 and 275: Charmaz, K., (2002). Qualitative in
Page 276 and 277: Fischer, G. and Giaccardi, E., (200
Page 278 and 279: Halliday, M.A.K. (2007). Language a
Page 280 and 281: Jones, J.C., (2009). What is design
Page 282 and 283: Lemke, J.L. (2005). Place, pace and
Page 284 and 285: Norman, D.A. (2008). The way I see
Page 286 and 287: Reinhard, C. D., & Dervin, B. (2010
Page 288 and 289: Thackara, J. (2005). In the bubble:
Page 290 and 291: Summary in English Computer-generat
Page 292 and 293: Dansk resumé af afhandlingen Compu
Page 294 and 295: Interview Guide (Metrotopia and PAL
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Multimodal Semiotics and Collaborative Design

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