The magic first half-hour

Over the years I have spent quite a bit of time (probably a little too much) playing computer games of one type or another. The experiences from them vary widely, but there is one common element that in my view either makes or breaks that experience and will set a lot of the tone for the next 100 hours.

'The magic first hour' is the experience of how a new game – a new world – caters for your arrival, manages the suspension of disbelief at the same time as explaining to you exactly what it is you are supposed to be doing.... and does this in a way that makes you want to continue.
Car race games don't need to make a great fuss about mechanics and controls at this point and have the freedom to focus on backstory and plot. Fantasy games and MMORPGs (Massively Multi-player On-line Role Playing Games) in particular have a much more complex player interaction as well as (usually) a deeper and more convoluted story. It is this type of game that offers us some of the best examples of how to bring a new user to an environment that can be difficult to master.
World of Warcraft (WoW) is a great example of a good strategy for doing this. They player starts and makes as few permanent choices as possible and well placed in-game pointers and pop-up help continually adds new information and help for the player. As the player progresses, in-game characters reveal more information, choices and instructions. This ensures that the player starts with a relatively small amount information that they need to retain, and that this is expanded in line with their growing experience of the game. Both the plot and the geographical area that the player is exposed to grow in the same manner.

It's the start of this learning period that I'm calling the magic first half-hour.

Over the past couple of years there has been an explosion of the number of free-to-play MMORPGs that are available, and I have played a number of them. Some follow a model similar to WoW an lead the player in, carefully expanding their knowledge and experience, helping at every stage. Some however don't. It's all to common a sensation to be dropped into game, with little clue how to use the game or what to do first. It's these games that I don't go back to and are right on the top of my 'things to un-install' list.

The message I think is true beyond just games - either progressively help the new user or risk losing them very quickly, regardless of how good your product actually is. If they don't feel supported and don't engage with it, they won't use it.

I also think that the actual duration and format of this exchange varies. For a web site, the duration is down to below a minute. The exchange is subliminal – a good, well presented design makes it apparent which elements of the site are navigational, or projects the right air of intrigue that the user will feel encouraged to explore the interface to find the content and navigation for themselves.
When first starting to use a new application or device such as mobile phone or mp3 player, the interface is critical to your comprehension of how to use it. For the majority of users of this type of technology (ones that have used something similar before) a well designed product should be intuitive. And these days it's pretty well true – use one mobile phone you can use them all, some fairly minor trial-and-error. But think back 10 years to how easy it wasn't to set the timer on your VHS recorder.

I'd also apply this to things like Second Life, which does a reasonable job of starting you on the path to learning how to use the interface, how to interact with the world itself and your avatar and how to communicate. Having introduced this technology 20 or so people in the last couple of months, they almost all agree that what happens next is the problem. You complete your training, know how to go places and chat with people and are dropped off in-world with little guidance of what to do next. It's an experience a bit like showing someone who has never seen the World Wide Web before and and sitting them in front of a web browser and saying “here you are .... go explore”.Providing starting points would be a great idea.

The same is true for visiting some new locations in Second Life. Bad design leaves me feeling unsure as to where I'm supposed to go, where my introduction is, what I should expect and what this place is all about. The next thing that usually happens is I move on and explore somewhere else – the poor arrival negates my desire to explore: if the start is uninspiring will the rest be any different?
Don't forget the new user experience. I've worked on a lot of projects where the induction for new users is one of the last elements to be added in – often because it relies on the finalisation of all the other elements. The key is not to rush this, to think about the range of your target audience and how to lead them into the experience you have crafted for them, in a way that they will readily understand.

Pale

Why put your business into Second Life?

Second life, the internet virtual world operated by Linden Labs, has enjoyed growing exposure in the press over the last year, every week I seem to read either a book review or an article on it. This is reflected in the continued growth in the number of people registering a Second Life account - now numbering over 11 million, with a minimum of 35 thousand of them logged in at any given point in time.

So what is Second Life? It's official website is at http://www.secondlife.com . Second Life is a virtual world whose content created by the people who use it. Every building, object, item of clothing ... when Second Life launched it was a blank rolling countryside. It is now populated by all manner of buildings and creations from offices to shops, space stations to beaches. The thing that makes Second Life unique is it's approach to copyright: the users who create an object, what ever it is, retain ownership and copyright of that object, and can sell their object to other users for currency that can be easily converted into US$. The same is true for the land itself: it can be bought, owned and resold by the users – Second Life has it's own property market.

Driven but this built-in concept of user ownership, Second Life has an expanding economy and over US$ 1.2 million changes hands every day. I have recently read that the economy in Second Life has been estimated to be worth US$1 billion.

The world is displayed in 3D on your computer using a viewer application that is available free from Second Life's makers, Linden Labs. Registering an account to use the world is also free, although features like land ownership require a higher level of account that has a subscription fee.
Second Life offers a lot of the features that you would expect to find in any real time communications tool – text based chat tools, in-built VOIP (Voice Over IP – essentially the ability to talk and be heard over the internet), user profiles, the ability to exchange landmarks (like bookmarks, but pointing to a specific place in the virtual world) and comprehensive search tools.
Having said that, a business starting up in second life should not expect to immediately find a new revenue stream. The biggest benefits of virtual world technologies is as part of the social networking mix and they present and opportunity for a business to communicate with it's existing and potential customers in a new way that offers an experience that is not readily offered elsewhere. Your business can also benefit from the increased exposure and marketing that you base around your new adoption of this technology.

Translating your business and your brand for use in a virtual world may need some adjustments to the kind of voice you use. In the same way that writing for a printed publication differs from writing for a website, the content that you choose for use in Second Life must be adapted to suit the way it is going to be presented.

One key concept to remember, and this is something that was missed by some of the first businesses entering Second Life, is that having a Second Life office is not the same as having a website. Websites are a part of the communications mix that is still very much a solitary, user driven experience. As a representative of your business, you probably have no current data about how many visitors are viewing your website right now, or a mechanism where you can start a conversation with them.

Virtual worlds offer a more social way to browse information and to share the experience, both with a representative of your business and with other customers. Offices in Second Life are much the same as real world offices in this respect – they benefit from being staffed. It is also worth noting that there is a difference in the way that people will interact with your virtual office compared to your website. It is well documented that a new visitor to a website will remain for only a very short period of time (less than a minute) and will be unlikely to explore any links from that page if they don't quickly see something that sparks their interest. People visiting locations in Second Life tend to spend longer exploring, especially if the location has been well designed, and tend to retain more of the experience.

So what should I actually use Second Life for? Second Life is a tool for communication, collaboration and shared exploration. Uses include:

• as a venue for conferences, seminars and meetings where the participants are geographically separated
• as demonstration environment for collaboratively exploring 3D mock-ups (for example, taking a client through a replica of the show apartment in a new development)
• as gallery and exhibition spaces that offer a similar experience to their real world counterparts
• as explorative spaces (for example a fitted kitchen company could use the space to offer a try before you buy experience for it's customers and allow them the ability to switch units and groups around to see which options the prefer).

Are there any other worlds? The future seems bright for virtual worlds when you consider the total number that are in use every day. When you include all the games, like World of Warcraft, that are being played (essentially themed virtual worlds) the the total number of registered users is in the 100s of millions. Soon to launch for Sony's Playstation 3 is Home. A social networking environment designed for players to meet, interact, share experience and start on-line games together. So far, however Second Life is the only world to offer user generated content and content ownership.

Second Life is not a replacement for your website. It is a key part of your communications mix, in the same way that email newsletters and using myspace.com are both valuable channels for reaching clients. Second life also provides a unique user experience which can be tailored to carry your brand and your message which can be reinforced by direct interaction.

Pale