VWADM: An architecture-inspired method for designing virtual world applications

Virtual World (VW) applications are digital 3D-simualtion environments used for military, education, sport and healthcare purposes. In this work, an architecture-inspired method called the Virtual World Applications Design Method (VWADM) is presented for designing such applications. The VWADM combines a generative design grammar (GDG) framework and a generative design agent (GDA) model to form the template of a mechanism that can be used for creating place models of VW applications during the design process. The GDG framework is used to develop GDGs for capturing spatial data that pertains to VW applications, transforming and storing such data and subsequently using it to create placeoriented conceptual models of these applications. In complement, the GDA model is used to develop GDAs for automatically generating physical models of VW applications, whose specifications are derived from the GDGs. The development of the VWADM is grounded in design science research (DSR), which is a research paradigm that provides a set of synthetic and analytical techniques and perspectives for understanding, conducting, evaluating and reporting creative work. DSR involves answering questions that are relevant to human problems through the design of novel and innovative artefacts. The thesis focuses on describing the design of the VWADM, demonstrating its functionality and evaluating its fitness and utility for designing VW applications. Details are presented of software that was developed to establish proof of concept for the VWADM. Through the development of the VWADM, the research establishes (1) a set of modelling concepts that use grammar and rules as the basis for capturing the semantics of the conceptual models of VW applications, (2) a set of visual notations that include basic shapes and symbols, which can be used to present the conceptual models of VW applications to stakeholders for them to manually review, (3) an intelligent component that is used for automatically generating physical models of VW applications and (4) a stepwise process, which involves layout design, object design, navigation design and interaction design and acts as a guide for the process of creating the conceptual and physical models of VW applications. Feedback from developers suggest that the VWADM can provide a significant contribution to automating the process of VW design specifically from the point of view of place-oriented design. Some ideas for future work are presented.