Designing virtual environments to support cooperation in the real world.

Crabtree, A. and Rodden, T. and Mariani, J. (2002) Designing virtual environments to support cooperation in the real world. Virtual Reality, 6 (2). pp. 63-74. ISSN 1359-4338

Abstract

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 enivronments 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 the library, and the design and evaluation of a prototype supporting the real world cooperation involved in getting the job of searching done.