[sldev] RE: Landmarks and Navigation Update 2008-05-29

[Tateru Nino]

I thought they /were/ a contracted team.

Ann Otoole wrote:
> I previously requested someone look into how this project can impact 
> search and there were no replies so I will reiterate:
>
> Profile Picks are part of the new search relevancy. Messing with this 
> breaks search. An external non LL contracted team cannot be allowed to 
> work on things that will result in devastation of the economy. How 
> this can even happen is interesting. Great work and all but who 
> decided to allow you to potentially erase the SL economy?
>
> Landmarks were initially listed in the SL blog as being a search 
> relevance factor. The entire discussion of removing landmarks should 
> have never happened without a discussion of this factor first.
>
> My recommendation is for the LL search related team to pay more 
> attention to protecting their turf and communicating with this 
> community to ensure everyone understands how this work will or will 
> not impact the new search.
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Sarah Hutchinson <sarah at aucreativegroup.com>
> To: sldev at lists.secondlife.com
> Sent: Thursday, June 5, 2008 11:37:46 AM
> Subject: Re: [sldev] RE: Landmarks and Navigation Update 2008-05-29
>
> Hello all!
>
> Thank you so much for your feedback and comments on the Landmarks & 
> Navigation project. My name is Kippie Friedkin and I'm a member of the 
> Vectorform team. The team has been watching the threads and taking 
> into consideration all of your input. We're excited that there has 
> been so much interest in this project! Working on an open source 
> project is a great learning experience for us, so we've been careful 
> to respond with accuracy. Now we'll work on responding with a little 
> more speed. As we have begun to define the design and functionality, 
> we're better positioned to understand and discuss the technical issues.
>
> I thought I'd begin this note with an update on the project - where 
> we've been, where we are, and where we're going.
>
> *Where we've been
> *The project began with a massive research phase that encompassed 
> Office Hours discussions, interviews with Residents (both new and 
> veteran), scouring Second Life blogs, researching resident-created 
> tools, reviewing other Viewers and a host of web apps.
>
> During this phase, it was our goal to learn how Residents navigate 
> in-world and how they create, use, and manage Landmarks. We solicited 
> feedback on their pain points, ideas, and general comments that 
> touched on Inventory, Landmarks, navigation, and User Picks.
>
> At the end of this research phase, we presented our finding to Linden 
> Lab as well as some initial mockups and wireframes that would satisfy 
> some of the project goals (as stated on the WIKI) as:
>
>    *
>
>       *To create a history of locations visited*, presented in some
>       visual fashion, which may include:
>
>          o
>
>             Back & forward buttons for teleporting through location
>             history
>
>          o
>
>             Prominent on-screen affordance for accessing/adding Landmarks
>
>    *
>
>       *To improve the existing, or create a new, system for managing
>       Landmarks*, which should support the following:
>
>          o
>
>             Sorting, re-ordering
>
>          o
>
>             Organizing into folders or similar
>
>          o
>
>             Renaming
>
>          o
>
>             Sharing
>
>          o
>
>             Tagging
>
>    *
>
>       *To create a new navigation panel* (ie. the visual container for
>       the new UI components)
>
>          o
>
>             To provide the ability to hide/show this panel.
>
> A few other things were investigated and discussed at the project's onset:
>
>   1.
>
>       Removing Landmarks from Inventory, in favor of a new system for
>       managing Landmarks.
>
>   2.
>
>       Deprecating Picks or finding some way to make sharing Landmarks
>       easier.
>
> Discussions with Residents quickly removed these two items from the 
> scope of this project.
>
> Removing Landmarks from the Inventory is an extremely difficult thing 
> from to do from an implementation perspective. It also means that one 
> of our project requirements - that of backwards compatibility - was 
> broken. So it was determined that Landmarks were best left a part of 
> the Inventory. As noted, there are many ways a Landmark can end up in 
> one's Inventory, and the pros of Landmarks being left where they are, 
> very quickly outweighed any cons that currently exist.
>
> With regards to User Picks, we learned that Picks are used for a lot 
> more than just sharing of favorite places. It was decided that until 
> Second Life offer the more social features that Picks have evolved 
> into, that it should be left as is.
>
> *Where we are today
> *The Vectorform team has spent the past few weeks working on 
> wireframes and designs for the newly proposed features.
>
> Based on our research, Resident feedback, and meetings with Linden 
> Lab, we are building the following features in the Viewer:
>
>   1.
>
>       *Navigation Panel*
>       The Navigation panel will include forward, back, home and
>       history buttons, as well as an address/location text box and
>       'go' button.
>
>       The designs are being revised and updated to fit more into the
>       new Dazzle style with insight and feedback from Residents and
>       Lindens.
>
>       The Navigation Panel can be able to be shown or hidden using
>       both a small toggle at the top-left of the Viewer as well a
>       keyboard shortcut - "/". (We are still determining if this will
>       work as a shortcut key, but an initial review indicated it was
>       not being used by another UI element - so this is TBD).
>
>       In between the back and forward buttons will be a small, history
>       button which will allow a Resident to view the list of places
>       he/she has visited during that session. The number of places
>       stored in this history and whether it persists between sessions
>       can be set in ones User Preferences.
>
>       The name of the parcel and region will be shown in the location
>       history. Mousing over an item in the list will reveal additional
>       info (SLURL? How long ago you were there?)
>
>       Clicking the back or forward button will automatically teleport
>       the Resident back/foward in their location history.
>
>       Clicking the home button will teleport the Resident back to
>       his/her home location.
>
>       Address Bar - The address bar will display a SLURL by default.
>       Users can enter a SLURL,  or Region name in their Inventory. If
>       the Resident types in a Region name that is not in their
>       Inventory, we will go a global search to find the location. If
>       the location cannot be found, the Search floater will open.
>
>   2.
>
>       *User Preferences
>       *We are introducing a new tab to the User Preferences floater
>       that will providing users the ability to:
>
>          *
>
>             Set the number of days to store location history 
>
>          *
>
>             Set the number of days to store address bar history
>
>          *
>
>             Clear the history of either of the above two items
>
>          *
>
>             Export Landmarks in HTML, TXT, or XML formats
>
>   3.
>
>       *Create/Edit Landmarks UI*
>       Residents will now be able to add a custom name and stores notes
>       when creating or editing a Landmark. There will also be the
>       option to select or create a folder when creating/editing 
>       Landmarks.
>
>       All Landmarks and their folders will be will be placed into the
>       Landmarks folder in the Inventory floater.
>
>       To clear up any confusion, the following circumstances will
>       still apply: 
>
>          *
>
>             Landmarks received from purchased objects will remain with
>             the object/folder as they are created.
>
>          *
>
>             Landmarks received view Inventory transfer will be placed
>             into a Received Landmarks folder by default, but also
>             allow for the Resident to edit and select a folder in
>             which to place the Landmark.
>
>          *
>
>             Landmarks received via automatic givers will also be
>             placed into the Received Landmarks folder, by default.
>             Still TBD in terms of scoping, but we'd also like to
>             include functionality that allows the Resident to edit and
>             select a folder in which to place the Landmark.
>
>          *
>
>             Landmarks embedded in Notecards will not see any change in
>             functionality. The landmark will remain embedded in the
>             Notecard and not accessible except through Notecard access.
>
>   4.
>
>       *Landmarks Menu*
>       A new 'Landmarks' menu will be added to the top menu of the
>       Viewer. The options for this menu are as follows:
>
>          *
>
>             Create Landmark
>
>          *
>
>             Manage Landmarks
>
>          *
>
>             Set Home to Current Location
>
>          *
>
>             Teleport Home
>
>          *
>
>             Received Landmarks - A sub-folder in the Landmarks folder
>             in Inventory where all received Landmarks are stored by
>             default.
>
>          *
>
>             Recent Places - Displays a list of Landmarks a Resident
>             has recented used.
>
>          *
>
>             Access to Landmarks located in the Inventory Floater -
>             Residents will now have access to Landmarks stored in the
>             Landmarks folder of their Inventory via this menu. Any
>             sub-folders of the main Landmarks folder will appear in
>             this Landmarks menu and be navigable via this menu.
>
>   5.
>
>       *Manage Landmarks UI*
>       This new UI element is meant to allow residents a filtered via
>       of the Inventory, in which to organize and manage (edit/delete)
>       Landmarks. It consists of a small floater which will almost look
>       like a filter viewed of the Inventory Floater. The Manage
>       Landmarks floater will allow Residents to filter Landmarks,
>       create/edit/delete folders easily, and provide a place (without
>       having to weed through the rest of the Inventory) to edit Landmarks.
>
>       If you've had a chance to look at the wireframe posted on
>       NAV-28, there are two approaches to the Manage Landmarks UI. At
>       present, we have been asked to proceed with the separated
>       floaters approach (Solution 2).
>
>       Also, an advanced feature proposed for the Manage Landmarks UI
>       was a Data Sort View which would allow Residents to view, sort,
>       and manage Landmarks from a column set approach (like iTunes
>       <http://www.apple.com/itunes/>). However, at this time, we have
>       been asked to put that feature on hold since it's real benefit
>       has not been clear for all project stakeholders.
>
>       When editing a Landmarks, Residents will have the ability to
>       specify a custom name, add their own notes to each Landmark.
>       Residents will also have the ability to specify a picture they
>       want to use for a particular Landmark. Our technical team is
>       also reviewing the possibility of allowing a Resident the option
>       of using/reverting back to the default image for this location
>       (as specified by the Land Owner). It is as of yet undetermined
>       if this feature will be in scope.
>
>       The Edit Landmarks Floater will include small icons for 'Show on
>       Map' and 'Copy SLURL' to provide additional functionality.
>
>       Finally, we intend to display additional metadata about the
>       Landmark from the Edit Landmark floater - date acquired, last
>       teleport date, and last updated date.
>
> *Shared Landmarks & Tagging
> *One of our original ideas (and a common suggestion from Residents) 
> has been to include tagging of Landmarks and other Inventory assets. 
> We investigated a couple of ways to create a folksonomy use with 
> Landmarks in Second Life during the first phase of our project. 
> However, it became clear that tagging functionality would be useful 
> for many other areas and could touch many other areas including 
> search, the web, User Picks, and most Inventory items. Rather than 
> build a small one-off tagging system just for Landmarks, it was 
> decided that creating a true folksonomy that could be used throughout 
> Second Life (For searching, sharing landmarks, creating more a social 
> network, etc.) was a much bigger project than our timeline or project 
> goals would allow for. So tagging functionality was deemed out of 
> scope for this project.
>
> *Where we're going! Issues, Risks, Reviews, and Builds!
> *
> The design team is working closely with Linden Lab and soliciting 
> Resident feedback on new designs revisions. We hope to have design 
> approachs for the new Nav bar solidifed by the end of this week.
>
> In the meantime, our technical team have been working on laying the 
> foundation for the new Navigation bar, as well as spending time 
> researching the items which many of you have spoken about on this 
> list. A few items for which we're actively researching:
>
>    *
>
>       Understanding more about SLURLs and their relation to the Agni
>       grid and how they come into play with the beta grid(s).
>
>    *
>
>       How the introduction of a new top-left UI element will affect
>       Resident-created HUDs.
>
>    *
>
>       How the introduction of forward/back button teleport
>       functionality will affect grid stability.
>
> In addition to researching open issues, our tech team is also working 
> on wrapping up a Viewer build (minus approved creative). We will be 
> testing that and reviewing it with Linden Lab over the next week.
>
> I would encourage all of you to continue sharing your thoughts and 
> feedback. As I stated at the beginning of this message, the Vectorform 
> team will be much more actively engaged with this list moving forward.
>
> Best,
> Kippie Friedkin
>
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-- 
Tateru Nino
http://www.massively.com/