Designing Virtual Environments to Support Cooperation in the Real World

Much of the current research in the design of virtual environments is centred on laboratory prototypes and emphasis is placed on supporting cooperation within the virtual world itself. By way of contrast, this paper places an emphasis upon the development of virtual environments that support cooperation within the real world. This external research focus situates virtual environments within the bricolage of material artefacts that people use in coordinating and accomplishing ordinary jobs of work. We elaborate the shift to the external environment of ordinary human jobs and users through an ethnographic study of searching for information in a library, and the design and evaluation of a prototype supporting the real world cooperation involved in getting the job of searching done. Keywords. Virtual environments, material affordances, cooperative work, ethnography, design, evaluation.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2002
• Where: VR
• Authors: Andy Crabtree, Tom Rodden, John A. Mariani
• Keywords: External Research Focus, Real World, Virtual Environments, Virtual Reality, VR 2002