[ISEA2000] Paper: Josephine Anstey – The User Knows Best: Refining a VR Interactive Fiction Project

Abstract

The artist/programmer needs to solicit user feedback and observe users in the system in order to check whether the goals of the project are being realized and to refine the interaction. This paper is a case study of this process as it unfolded during the development of a virtual reality, interactive fiction piece, The Thing Growing, built at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), University of Illinois at Chicago, between 1997-2000. The goal of The Thing Growing is to create an interactive story in which the user is the main protagonist and engages at an emotional level with a virtual character, the Thing.

Intro

Creating interactive work is an iterative process. The artist/programmer needs to solicit user feedback and observe users in the system in order to check whether the goals of the project are being realized and to refine the interaction. This paper is a case study of this process as it unfolded during the development of a virtual reality, interactive fiction piece, The Thing Growing, built at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), University of Illinois at Chicago, between 1997-2000. The goal of The Thing Growing is to create an interactive story in which the user is the main protagonist and engages at an emotional level with a virtual character, the Thing.

Full text (PDF) p. 107-113