Towards an Understanding of how the ‘Geographical Dirtiness’ (Complexity) of a Virtual Environment Changes User Perceptions of a Space

VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) was used to build two tools: a ‘Sandbox’ and a virtual world. Building the tools was done so that community members, or planning consortia, could use the tools in a group meeting or individually through home Internet computers, or even at Internet cafes. The underlying criterion for design was simplicity and accessibility. The virtual world was created as a test-bed for determining the ‘best’ content/presentation method. The development of the model and subsequent evaluations are the focii of this paper. The model was developed as a test bed to determine 1. What the model should contain – a trade-off between development costs and usability, 2. How much information needs to be included for professional and public users and 3. How landmarks might be incorporated to facilitate a ‘balance’ between minimal information provision and usability.