Presentation given at IXD 11 (Feb 9 - 12, 2011) on designing online environments and virtual worlds for kids ages 6-8.

1. Designing
Immersive
Online
Environments
Debra Levin Gelman • @dgelman
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2. Role-Playing Immersion
Dialogue Anonymity
Currency Identity
Game Play
Terrain
Reward
Relationships
Self-Expression
Architecture
Community
Advancement
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3. Identity
‘Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise
than what it might appear to others that
what you were or might have been was not
otherwise than what you had been would
have appeared to them to be otherwise.’
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4. Identity
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5. Identity
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6. Identity
• Give lots of options
• Keep it simple
• Allow for frequent adjustment
• Encourage experimentation
• Promote “showing off”
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7. Self-Expression
Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said: “one can’t believe
impossible things.”
"I daresay you haven't had much practice,"
said the Queen. "Why, sometimes I've believed
as many as six impossible things before
breakfast."
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8. Self-Expression
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9. Self-Expression
• Offer the right tools
• Allow “permanent” object creation
• Create opportunities for exploration
• Make it a game
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10. Community
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here. I'm mad.
You're mad.'
'How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.
'You must be,' said the Cat, 'or you wouldn't
have come here.'
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11. Community
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12. Community
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13. Community
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14. Community
• Create broad ground rules
• Promote collaboration vs communication
• Keep interaction optional
• Emphasize privacy and safety
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15. If I had a world of my own, everything
would be nonsense. Nothing would be
what it is, because everything would be
what it isn't. And contrary wise, what
is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't
be, it would. You see?
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16. Thank you.
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