Saturday, June 14, 2008

800,000L Viewer Interface Contest

"I am inviting the creative, brilliant, thoughtful, insightful community of SL to submit designs for a new Second Life client. We can call it a “newbie viewer” or a “junior client” - whatever terms you want to give"

With the problems seen with the new 'Dazzle' user interface this contest is a breath of fresh air, run by Dusan Writer, this gives us a chance to show how we would design the UI, maybe a simplified version for casual visitors or those coming for just a short period with the ability to upgrade at a later date.
The designs will be judged and the top 10 will go through to a presentation of their ideas - you don't have to make it, or code it, just show how it could and explain your rationale.

- Submit no later than 11:59 PM (2359hrs) SL time June 29, 2008
- Announcement of finalists: July 6th
- Presentation by finalists to judging panel: July 12th
- Winners announced: July 14th

See Dusan Writers blog for full contest details and rules.

Dusan states the reasons for doing this:
"I’m doing this for a bunch of reasons. First…I don’t believe we should just rely on the Lindens, we’ve talked about this a lot, and it’s time to see what the people who put the meaning behind “Your World, Your Imagination” can come up with. I’m sure the Lindens are looking at similar ideas, but would also appreciate a wider dialog in the community.
It would be NICE if the Lindens or someone picked up on some of the ideas and discussion that this might generate. If not them, maybe the OpenSim people - whoever, the important thing, I believe, is to bring a discussion about the viewer into the open, and sometimes the best way to do that is to put a few Lindens (um, the currency not the people, I have no intention of cooking the Lindens) into the pot to make it interesting.
I don’t really want to develop a viewer. I have no particular incentive to do so. It’s not to say I WON’T….I might be willing to, I think it could be both a headache and a blast. I DO have an interest in seeing more people come to SL, even for a one-off event…and stay. And I think offering a simple viewer - one say that students might use, or schools, or just some casual surfer who wants to try a “simple SL”. It’s good for all of us.
And finally, I think it’s a great way to hear from people who can do this kind of thing because I like to meet people with this kind of talent. Hey, I talk a good game, but that doesn’t mean I know how to DO much of anything. I like meeting people who know how to do stuff."

If you are design inclined take a look, it could be worth a lot of Lindens but more than that, we could get a simple newbie friendly UI that would be much easier for new visitors to SecondLife.

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