Mapping Virtual Worlds and Their Inhabitants
Addressed User Tasks
The developed visualization tools are intended to support social
navigation in three-dimensional virtual worlds, to help evaluate and
optimize the design of virtual worlds, and to provide a means to study the
communities evolving in virtual worlds.
Design Concept
The figures show the layout and utilization of diverse virtual worlds.
Information on the position, size and rotation of all three-dimensional
objects as well as on interaction posibilities are used to generate a map
of a world. Overlaid are user interaction data such as movement, web
click, or chat activity recorded during virtual events in a particular world.
Design Implementation
All virtual objects are rendered in transparent green to preserve the
visibility of layered objects. A reference grid indicates the size of the
virtual world. To show the evolution of a world, darker colors are used for
older objects and lighter colors for younger ones. Web links and teleports
are indicated by green squares and purple plus signs respectively. Colorcoding
is used to denote the chronological sequence of user interactions.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. Role # 0411846.
Börner, Katy and Penumarthy, Shashikant. (2003). Social Diffusion Patterns in Three-Dimensional Virtual Worlds. Information Visualization, 2(3):182-198.
For more Information, contact Katy Börner at katy@indiana.edu