"RWX Models for Active Worlds" is a project prepared for Dr. Katy Borner's User Interface Design for Information Systems (Fall 2001). This web site serves as an introduction to 3-D object mechanics and provides basic tutorials for manipulation of rwx avatars for Active Worlds.

Collaborators and Task Division

The project was created by Gyeongia Lee and Dan Suchy. Lee and Suchy are both graduate students in the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) at Indiana University. Although all portions of the project are a joint collaboration, tasks were initially divided as follows:

Gyeongja

• Tutorial 3
• Site design and implementation
• Content creation and editing

Dan

• Tutorials 1 & 2
• Usability report
• Content creation and editing

Design Decisions

Since the main functions of this site are tutorials, our design decisions primarily focused on how to develop and present clear and easy to follow content. We initially began with two tutorials- one relating to Modeler functions, and the other with the rwx code itself. We later determined that we needed to expand the first tutorial into two in order to present the information in more logical groupings. This design revision allowed the user to begin on a basic level and slowly move towards a more advanced understanding of avatar manipulations and rwx coding.

Once we were satisfied with the new design outline and content, we performed task-based analysis in order to determine usability and overall satisfaction. Lastly, we implemented changes based upon the results of our tests.

Limitations

Although our project serves as a useful resource, there are external limitations to its functions. For example, the software we feature (Modeler) is somewhat limited in its ability to manipulate 3-D objects. There are other more robust 3-D renderers programs available, but they are often very expensive to purchase. Since Modeler is provided as a free download, it was the best choice from an accessibility standpoint.