Communicating design using 3D collaborative virtual environments and online chat.

Abstract

This thesis addresses the role of perspective in communicating design. It uses the latest iteration of perspective technology, the real-time 3D virtual environment (3DVE) as a vehicle. A series of pedagogical case studies in the use of 3DVEs is explored. The case studies are founded on exercises with design students as participants. The participants concretise their thoughts in text using online chat whilst exploring various 3DVEs remotely located from each other. The net result of this investigation is that perspective is only one of many methods the participants in this study used for communicating spatiality.