The Metaverse represents the next generation of the Internet that, at this instant in time, is still a concept. It is envisioned to provide interconnected experiences that are immersive and varied. This vision challenges both designers and users to understand its possible coordination architecture and develop strategies for participation. One way to understand the concept and affect its instantiation is to take a design science approach that articulates design principles that might guide the exploration of different architectures. We apply concepts related to platforms and business ecosystems as well as ideas about facilitating technologies including choreography and orchestration as ways of blending together experiences, providing transitions between virtual locations. We derive three design principles from an analysis of Metaverse scenarios: narrative
composability, social assortativity, and path discoverability. Thinking through these aspects of design leads to a discussion about the tradeoffs that will face designers of the Metaverse.
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Designing the Metaverse
The Metaverse, a term coined in science fiction, is now being discussed seriously as a new form of infra-structure. The Metaverse is intended to make possible thematically interconnected immersive experiences. In this paper, we conceptualize the Metaverse as a meta design space. Within this space, designers create var-ious interconnected design spaces. We highlight how the key dimensions of human experience (time, space, actors, and artifacts) each introduce tensions for making decisions in those design spaces, and we highlight the transitions between design spaces. This conceptual language opens up this novel and emergent phenomenon both to those wishing to design new disruptive technologies and those seeking to improve existing platform strategies. We conclude by highlighting how the Metaverse will not only comprise immersive virtual experiences but also transitions between physical and virtual experiences.
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- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10298099
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the 55th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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