Gather Town
Chapter 3 Review
In this chapter, I learned about the context mapping process and toolkits to utilize. I am more familiar with experience design because I have been learning for my whole university life. However, context mapping is an applicable concept because of rising digital transformation and customer experience innovation. Over the period, researchers and corporations have been focusing on technology and innovating the experiences. The strength of the generative technique is allowing a deeper understanding of what users feel and dream in their context since everyone experiences differently. There are similar experiences but not the same. The gathered results would be different from the data collected from interviews and observations, which only helps to understand the ephemeral aspects of the users. In this sense, generative techniques (like context mapping) are a great way to build empathy. Also, at the end of the context mapping session, we can see their world, what they dream of in the future. The ideas in the future are likely to be the latent needs that underlie their unconsciousness.
Generative Design seems appropriate and needed to further develop Metaverse, in a relatable manner for other people. It is still new, and I think this research is needed to add values that touch on people’s latent needs. This will make the metaverse more relatable and powerful.
Paper Review
The main learning from Building Space in the Machine: Digital Tool Kits for Mirror Worlds by Dr. Andrew Hudson-Smith and Dr. Andrew Crooks was the increased availability of metaverse platforms. While the tools are free, many of them are easy to learn and apply for creation. I totally agree with the authors’ remark that the free and convenient digital tools took away the previous restriction of many developers. I thought this phenomenon is found in the designer’s field as well. Digital tools like Mango Board, Miricanvas, and Canva lowered the boundary in which people try design creation. However, what distinguishes the usage of open sources seems to be creativity. It is really up to the creator that utilizes the open tools and sources to make innovation.
From the Co-Producing, Curating, and Reconfiguring Dwelling Patterns: A Design Anthropological Approach for Sustainable Dwelling Futures in Residential Suburbs, I was most impressed by the intensive co-work and the use of lego-like toys. Looking at how the session really utilizes the toolkit helped me to imagine how the session would go. Regardless of the realistic feasibility, I believe the ideas that the participants showed during the workshop reflect the ideal future that they want to see. I felt this when I saw that co-existence is one essential topic to consider for building sustainable cities and communities. For a city to be sustainable and satisfying for the inhabitants, there are many things that should be considered. This generative session was successful in engaging collaborative dialogue. sharing ideas, and discovering the future that the inhabitants would like to see.
Gather Town Exploration
For metaverse exploration, I experimented with some potential metaverse platforms that I would maybe use for the upcoming project - Second Life, Zepeto, Roblox, and Gather Town.
Gather Town was my first pick. Gather Town has been actively used across many sectors for various reasons. Corporations are using Gather Town as a tool to host online exposition, and schools and the independent school organizations are incorporating this platform to host events as well. Recently, UIC conducted a festival using Gather Town, and I saw some of my friends participating in the event in their instagram stories.
After watching several youtube videos, I found that Gather Town has its own mapmaker, which allows you to create your own world. There are three ways that you can build world (they call it background).
Use the given template
Build the background from scratch by using editing tools
Import the background work (photoshop or illustrator, coding)
Watching the video at the top, I thought it would be manageable for me, and as I have never experienced Gather Town before it would be a great opportunity to try it out.
So for this week, I tried [1] making my own avatar [2] visiting one world [3] creating a simple world for myself using mapmaker.
<Making my own avatar>
Points that I liked:
easy customization! (limited options, less overthinking)
simple but representative (representative styles of human, good enough!)
<Visiting the world>
Among various world, Coca-Cola Wonderful Island caught my attention, so I decided to try.
This Coca-Cola Wonderful Island was directed by Coca Cola Korea. They released this in July, and it is continuing until now. Using Gather Town, players see the process of a PET cola bottle becoming "I'll be bag" at the virtual factory. *"I'll be bag" is reusable bag.
Several events and places were prepared in the virtual world, too. O/X quiz regarding the correct disposal method, Coca-Cola Market, and Coca Cola Camping Zone are some examples.
Reference Article: https://www.donga.com/news/Culture/article/all/20210910/109186640/1
Personal thoughts:
look and feel reminds me of Nintendo games & Stardew Valley
Friendly but modern! Interesting feeling
Good way to deal with the COVID situation (this should have been probably organized outside like in The Hyundai, Time Square, or COEX)
<Creating a Simple World>
최근 게시물
전체 보기Second Life - First Impressions #firstsandbox #interesting #confused My first, general impression of playing Second Life: interesting, cool, but outdated. It took me a while to get used to the control