Library and Information Research Group
Had we but world[s] enough, and time?
Alan MacLennan
Library and Information Research Volume 30, Number 93, Winter 2005, pp16-25
Refereed Paper
The author
Alan MacLennan is a course leader and lecturer in
Information Management at Aberdeen Business School,
Robert Gordon University. This research is towards a
PhD.
Abstract
This paper presents ongoing research into user
requirements for 3-dimensional "virtual worlds" to be
used as a means of information retrieval. There is a
brief review of the literature in the fields in which
design of 3-dimensional virtual spaces has been carried
out, and the conclusion is reached that this design has
usually been done without regard to user preferences.
This study has used grounded theory to establish user
preferences, initially amongst a group of about fifty
postgraduate information management students. Initial
results of open coding of these interviews are
described, and the next steps in the study are laid out.
The Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML) will be
used as a world design medium.
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Updated: 11 September 2006