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Feature Wish List for Wonderland 0.5
This document is intended to capture all the good ideas for new small-scale features to add to Wonderland. Please create a separate proposal document for any large feature idea.
Printing & Exporting
Problem/Motivation
Typically we focus on getting content into Wonderland, but getting it out is important as well.
There should be a way to print within Wonderland. The most likely things that people will want to print are in-world documents (PDF, Open Office, whitboards, etc.), but they may also want to print 3D scenes. This might go along with a "snapshot" feature that allows people to take a picture of what they're looking at and print or export it.
Exporting the content of 3D applications is also likely to be a common desire. People will want to export their whiteboard to a jpg image, a PDF document, or some other common external format. They will also want to save PDF documents, Open Office documents, and other types of documents to their local computer.
Description/Design Ideas
TBD
Added By: nicoley
Pointing and other indicators
Problem/Motivation
It can be difficult to get avatars to orient to an item of interest because there are no indicators to show what specifically is being referred to. Saying "Look at this" is meaningless in Wonderland because "this" cannot be determined without using linguistic description, e.g., "Look at the presentation to your avatar's left " And this can lead to further negotiations, e.g., "Which one?"
Description/Design Ideas
The ability to point in such a way that others can determine what is being pointed at is one way this could be approached. One example would be activating a virtual laser pointer for an avatar.
   
Avatar pointing at item of interest using laser pointer, hand pointer, combination pointer, and missile pointer.
The ability to indicate an item of interest could be an additional approach for the problem. For example, a user right clicks on an item and makes a selection from a context menu that would make the item glow, shake, grow, shrink, etc.
Avatar viewing a item of interest that has been set to glow.
Added By: M. Schmidt (matty_x)
Group formation and management
Problem/Motivation
Given a situation where users are attending to the same object it may be desirable to get closer to view the object. They can use "best view" on some apps, but not for any given object and not for all apps. It would be useful to have functions that automate avatar group formation around objects, or for discussions, or for group management (sometimes it's difficult to keep group members together).
Description/Design Ideas
Nicole made a suggestion here where she suggests, "Are there perhaps some patterns we can use to position avatars? For example, placing them in a semi-circle, a horizontal line, an oval bunch, etc."
Some examples might include the following:
Single speaker with all avatars oriented towards him/her.
Group discussion with all avatars in a circle, square, semi-circle, oval, etc. (like a "best view" but for social interaction).
Meeting room with seats and the ability to simply select "take a seat" or something similar from a menu.
Semi-circle around a PDF/Video/OpenOffice window.
Added By: M. Schmidt (matty_x)
Mechanisms to ease navigation
Problem/Motivation
The "Users" window provides one way to ease navigation. So does the placemarks feature. But these features are not prominent, intuitive, or readily usable. It may be prudent to rethink the design of these features and how they are integrated into the interface, as well as to add additional features.
Description/Design Ideas
One idea is to have some sort of activity monitor that displays who is doing what. For example, "Ryan has activated the PDF viewer in the conference room." A click on the notification provides the user the option to teleport to that location.
Windowed activity notification. Clicking "accept and join" teleports avatar to activity.
Growl-like activity notification. Clicking "accept and join" teleports avatar to activity.
But teleporting is only one form of navigating. What if the user wants to manually navigate there? One idea would be to provide an arrow above the avatar's head that points in the direction of the activity. The arrow could use color as a distance indicator, for instance, red indicates far, green indicates near.
Navigation arrow that points towards activity. As the avatar gets closer, the arrow changes color to orange, yellow, green.
Another way to do this would be to add a marker to a HUD map.
Nicole suggested "Perhaps this could be done by having only one message at a time that automatically fades away after a minute or two. Of course, users would need to be able to turn this feature off.
[...] If the informational message included a colored dot and this same colored dot appeared in the compass display, then you could just glance down at the compass and see where the activity was taking place relative to your current location."
Added By: M. Schmidt (matty_x)
Nicole proposes the following:
Follow-Me
Problem/Motivation
For some users, navigation is difficult. Since it requires significant cognitive load to navigate, it is difficult to move around the world and carry on a conversation at the same time.
Description/Design Ideas
A follow-me feature would allow a user to select another user's avatar to follow. Essentially, the selected avatar would do the all the navigation and the avatars that are following would just go along for the ride. There is already a mechanism for doing this in Wonderland - phone orbs can be tethered to an avatar and follow that avatar around. Perhaps when a user opts to follow someone else, their avatar becomes smaller (like the size of an orb) and they follow in the same way as the orbs do. This would help to solve some of the complicated collision problems that can happen if a group of people are following a single avatar.
There might be several possible mechanisms to un-tether from the avatar being followed. An explicit menu command or HUD command will be needed. It may also be useful to have an option to un-tether if the user presses any navigation command (arrow key, ASDF, etc.).
Added By: nicoley
Rupert proposes the following:
Click and go
Problem/Motivation
In agreement and addition to Nicole's comments, many potential users of 3D environments find the navigation hard, whether from dexterity-based reasons (e.g. disability) to speed-based reasons (over-shooting due to response time requirements) through conceptual reasons (not understanding use of keys to navigate) to others. These challenges face some users even when not accompanied by someone to follow.
Description/Design Ideas
Some of these same users are likely familiar and capable with 2D concepts of change occurring when a mouse is clicked and that the context (location, time, etc) relates to the result. Some may not be familiar but may find the metaphors easier to grasp.
As such, a control mode where clicking in the viewed area results in the avatar moving in the direction indicated may prove more intuitive than the game-classical mouse+ASDW system. Care would need to be taken to allow sufficiently broad and fine movements and control areas might be defined / configurable to allow movements that aren't obviously in the view of the avatar (e.g. turning perhaps by clicking in side control areas or walking backwards by clicking near the bottom of the window).
The likely consequent results of their action might be fed back to the user in response to some user action (say holding a key or activating a "help" or "training" mode). These might include HUD- or avatar-based feedback such as explanatory text / icons or the avatar looking / preparing to move in the direction of the candidate move.
Given the unconstrained mouse movement (WL usually runs in a window), merely moving the mouse cannot be used to actuate -- all actions need to be the result of a click. (Use of drag seems possible and is already implemented but may prove too quick for these users.)
Some trials would ideally be run with members of the target group to discover what might be most obvious / intuitive for them. Ideally, take some who have never experienced 3D environments on a computer and question / observe to determine how they expected to move (assuming they infer that they are able to move!),
(I can create some mock-up diagrams of what I initially envisage if the text above is inadequate. Let me know. -- RKD)
Added By: Rupert (RKD)
Path Finding
Problem/Motivation
A number of features related to navigation involve the need to move an avatar automatically from point A to point B. This is trivial if the avatar can walk in a straight line between the two points, but if any obstacles are in the way, the system needs to figure out the shortest path around the obstacles. For example, Rupert's point and go idea above would need this. A "go to" object object feature would also need this, as would an automated tour guide feature which takes users between placemarks without teleporting.
Description/Design Ideas
One idea is to integrate an existing path finding system. This page provides some starting points for systems that exist for games:
http://www.gameai.com/pathfinding.html
Added By: Nicole (nicoley)
Audio settings automation
Problem/Motivation
Manually setting individual avatar audio levels is tedious. If there are more than three avatars, it becomes time consuming.
Description/Design Ideas
Could we identify a threshold volume level and automagically setting all avatars volume at that threshold?
Added By: M. Schmidt (matty_x)
Audio proximity settings
Problem/Motivation
Scenarios exist in which a user may want to increase or decrease the radius of audio proximity.
Description/Design Ideas
This is different from the cone of silence. Instead of initiating a private conversation, it's like having a hearing aid for which one can increase and decrease the volume. That way the user can either hear more or less of the conversations around his/her avatar.
Audio proximity low (left) and high (right).
Added By: M. Schmidt (matty_x)
Automatic perspective switching
Problem/Motivation
Using a keyboard shortcut or a menu item to switch perspectives works, but the process could be automated. This would create one less step when sharing objects and could increase usability.
Description/Design Ideas
When a user selects or comes in proximity of a given object, the perspective automatically switches from 3rd to 1st person. This could be controlled both with an option in the preferences (i.e., "Turn off automatic perspective switching"), and also through the object's xml configuration file.
For example:
<perspective>
<firstPerson>1</firstPerson>
<thirdPerson>0</thirdPerson>
</perspective>
<perspectiveControl>
<proximity>1</proximity>
<onActivation>0</onActivation>
Added By: M. Schmidt (matty_x)
Progress bars on load
Problem/Motivation
Multiple progress bars are displayed in the asset manager, but no single progress bar is displayed on world load or when assets are loading.
Description/Design Ideas
It is desirable to have a single progress bar displayed prominently in the Wonderland client window as the world loads, when a user enters a portal and new assets need to be loaded, when a PDF is loading, when a video is loading, etc.
Load bar on PDF.
Load bar on client launching world.
Load bar on teleport.
Added By: M. Schmidt (matty_x)
Presence indicators
Problem/Motivation
Presence indicators are pretty common in IM clients (away, in a meeting, etc.). Would it make sense to include similar functionality in Wonderland?
Description/Design Ideas
Away
Problem/Motivation
If a user steps away from his or her computer, it can be frustrating for other in-world users who try talking or chatting with the person who is away. There is currently no mechanism in Wonderland to signal to others that you are away.
Description/Design Ideas
A very simple approach to this problem is to include an "Away" menu command (with keyboard shortcut) that simply modifies the avatar name, in the same way that the "Mute" command modifies the name by placing square brackets around it. The name could be grayed out or "- away" could be appended to the end. There should also be a HUD message that is displayed to the person who is away with a button ("Return Now") that they can click to return to the normal state.
 
In the "away" state, audio should be disabled to prevent ease dropping. In other words, if the in-world users think someone is away, they should have a guarantee that the person who is away cannot hear what is being said.
It might also be useful to extend this to happen automatically after a certain amount of idle time. This is trickier since a person might be listening to a long presentation and appear to be idle when they are actually participating.
Added By: nicoley
Mood indicators
Problem/Motivation
Mood indicators are less common in 2D interfaces (for example, MySpace?), but have the potential to be powerful in 3DVEs. In 2D spaces, moods are typically conveyed using emoticons. In a 3DVE, mood can be conveyed by avatar facial expressions and body language. Less technologically complex would be with an emoticon in a thought bubble over the avatar's head.
Description/Design Ideas
Added By: M. Schmidt (matty_x)
Activity monitors
Problem/Motivation
Knowing who is doing what and who has done what is essential to collaborative activities. Say a user has been away for a week and logs in to a shared space. It is useful to know what has happened while the user was away. The need might also arise to know what's happening in a space while the user is logged in to that space.
This dovetails with the research questions put forward on the data collection wiki page.
Description/Design Ideas
TBD. Should address how data are visualized over time, how data are visualized in real time.
Added By: M. Schmidt (matty_x)
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