Category: SL Viewer

Viewer 2’s Basic Mode gains a new feature today – that of Voice.

While I don’t use Voice myself – I have nothing against it, I just move largely in the world of role -play in SL, and Voice can be illusion-shattering in that regard – I think it’s a pretty good option to have within Second Life, and adding it to the Basic Mode makes sense. To a point.

The problem is, a lot of things are “coming” to the Basic Mode (or have been indicated at coming) – currency, for example. To be fair, I’ve suggested some additions myself, although they appear to be fewer than those LL are contemplating. Which leads to a problem I’ve touched on before.

If LL keep adding to the Basic Mode, how long until it ceases being the “Basic Mode” and becomes “The Viewer”?  The function of a Basic Mode, I thought, was to ease new users into the Second Life / Viewer experience. Ergo, it makes sense to keep the Basic Mode relatively simple and clean. While things like Voice are very useful to have, the fact remains that if things keep getting added to the Basic Mode, then it won’t be long before any advantages gained in introducing it are going to be washed away.

In discussing this with Rodvik a while ago, I pointed out the need to provide a better transitional experience between the Basic and Advanced modes of the Viewer. It’s something he apparently generally agreed with, although he also appeared to imply that Basic might be more to do with making Viewer development more iterative, and that at some point in the future, Basic may merge with Advanced – presumably because the code base has been overhauled and made somewhat more modular, making future Viewer maintenance a lot easier.  If so, this throws the purpose of the Basic Mode into a whole different category than “simply” being a tool to help new users – and it’s future becomes somewhat more intriguing.

Personally, while I’m all in favour of making the Viewer a lot more modular (something I understand Bagman Linden (Jeff Petersen) is quite keen on) to the point of potentially making elements of the Viewer “optional”  / “installable as required” where users are concerned, I still think that the Basic Mode holds a lot of potential where new users are concerned, providing LL address its current shortfalls without overloading it with features and providing they add the means to bridge the gap between it and the Advance Mode smoothly.

It’ll be interesting to see which direction they do opt to take.

Opinions relating to the Basic mode available in Viewer 2 are mixed. While finding it usable in my original review, several aspects left me concerned as to how well it might fill the role for which it appears to have been designed. I specifically questioned the fact that beyond things like basic movement, the view controls and communicating, it has very little in common with the Advanced mode – and there is no obvious continuity in the assistance available for those who opt to start with Basic and come to the point where they want to transition.

One Small Step for a Viewer; One Giant Leap for the User

In fairness, getting to grips with the Viewer at the best of times isn’t easy; while Torley has produced some outstanding videos, these aren’t always easy to locate. Worse, the So-called Quick Start Guide suffers from a combination of having the wrong emphasis in part and missing important and basic information (like actually modifying your avatar’s appearance, rather than simply changing clothes). Also, it’s fair to say the Quick Start Guide hasn’t been updated to reflect the arrival of additional and attractive functionality, thus putting it further out-of-synch with the Viewer.

Put all of this together – the more intense UI of the Advanced mode, a less-than-helpful Quick Start Guide, only the broadest elements of commonality between the Basic and Advanced modes of the Viewer, etc. – and it becomes clear that moving up from the Basic mode to the Advanced mode is not so much a matter of taking the next logical step as it is about taking a leap of faith that the effort is going to be worth it. This considerably undermines the usefulness of the Basic mode.

If the Basic mode is to prove worthwhile, work needs to be put into providing some level of continuity between the two modes of the Viewer to help those making the transition. Indeed, with a little forethought, re-working where and how people get help in the Advanced mode may well assist those leaping straight into it, opting to avoid the Basic mode altogether.

Such continuity / general assistance could be achieved first and foremost by incorporating the HOW TO button with an expanded number of pop-ups (providing overviews of, say, the Sidebar, the revised Toolbar, the menus and the Favourites bar). Doing this would immediately achieve two things:

1. It would provide needed continuity of approach to seeking help for those moving up to Advanced from Basic.
2. It offers an obvious place to find basic help and information for those leaping into the Advanced mode of the Viewer and bypassing the Basic mode altogether.

All the pop-ups associated with HOW TO (both Basic and Advanced) should additionally contain links to the Viewer Quick Start Guide, where more in-depth information would still reside. These links should display a pop-up informing the user the QSG will be opened in their external browser (although the Advanced mode should still retain QSG access from the Sidebar as an option).

To further increase the relevancy of the QSG, it should be re-formatted into two sections: BASIC and ADVANCED:

• BASIC should provide additional information relevant to the Basic mode and which is not included in the HOW TO pop-ups (such as the more familiar WASD keys being available for movement, information on the various icons that appear on the right of the toolbar, etc.)
• ADVANCED should provide more in-depth information available to Advanced mode users
• Where any overlap occurs between the two modes, simple visual indicators should be used to indicate options those options only available to the Advanced mode.

Help, Don’t Hinder

It is fair to say that the current QSG is encumbered by several problems:

• It is out-of-date
• It lacks key information users will want to know – such as instructions on physically altering an avatar, as mentioned earlier
• It contains a lot of what might be regarded as extraneous information. For example, while one understands LL’s desire to promote Premium Accounts, is it really necessary to have the latter third of the QSG read like a brochure for Linden Homes – especially as there is already an entire section of the Sidebar given over to this very topic?

It would therefore seem preferable that any re-vamp of the QSG should also focus on ensuring it is updated to reflect more recent version of the Viewer and on assisting the user more effectively, rather than engaging them in a sales pitch for Premium Accounts.

Obviously, a better alignment of the two modes of the Viewer and overhauling the QSG will not solve all the problems inherent in joining Second Life – there are many other aspects of getting into SL that also need to be addressed over an above the Viewer itself.

However, changes like these should help to ease people into using the viewer and encourage a greater tolerance towards it by presenting a more easy-to-follow route into getting help and understanding the UI. In short, it will do more to help users in gaining familiarity with either mode of the Viewer, rather than possibly hindering them.

As stands, as long as the  disconnect between both modes of the Viewer remains, it is hard to see how the Basic mode can achieve any lasting positive impact on new users.