“Engage stage of Hub2 project” (Creative Commons license)

We entered the Engage stage of our collaboration project yesterday with a visit from a number of avatars to our space on Boston Island (SLURL). It was great to have so many avatars, who we didn’t know previously, navigate through the space and give us feedback. While most of the avatars spent more time visiting the other group projects, we did receive some valuable comments from those we spoke to.

Among the comments, included not being sure what to do in the space when avatars first arrived. We did add signs to help people understand what was going on since last class. However, some of the avatars mentioned that they did not see the “Start Here” flag that we placed over our “Welcome to Government Center” sign because it was too high.

As a result, we moved the sign lower and put the flag directly in the middle of the space. We hope this will make it more clear to future avatars visiting for the first time. Because this sign explains the project and the space, it’s crucial that there is no confusion as to where it can be found. Now that the sign is in the middle of the space, I hope this will make it more clear.

After explaining the purpose of the space to one of our visitors, the avatar responded, “Thanks… I like the artwork already…” The layout of the space, the winning sculpture and the three future installations in the juried space, all seemed to appeal to those new to the space. The voting process “click here to vote” seemed to work much more smoothly since we broke up the triangle and created three separate viewing, gallery-like spaces. I was pleased with this response.

Overall, while most avatars were unclear what to do when first arriving in the space — because they did not see the “Start here” sign — once they heard what its purpose was, there seemed to be a lot of positive feedback on its design.

[Link to original post]