‘F’ shaped webinars!

Companies are switching over to the web to deliver many of their training programs. This is due to the current economic climate coupled with our growing concern for the environment. A training delivered online is cheaper,  and leaves a smaller carbon footprint than a face to face meeting with people driving (and sometimes flying) in to attend. It makes a great deal of sense to run meetings and trainings online, unfortunately the quality of such trainings often leaves a lot to be desired.

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Talking to educators and trainers involved in such courses I get the impression that everyone accepts the fact that these trainings are as dull as dishwater. They, the trainers, know that many of the remotely based ‘attendees’ are continuing to work, surf the net, check their email and make phone calls etc, during the course of the training. The trainers are given limited resources (that are being pruned back more and more in many cases) yet they are expected to churn out training programs to hundreds of employees. Managements do not want to provide additional resources to help the trainers do their job, they just want to know the training has been delivered. A recipe for depressed trainers delivering mediocre and bland training programs to say the least!

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Having sat in on a few web based seminars myself I have been wondering just why they are so difficult and dull? I began surfing the net (sometimes during webinars) to see what the real scoop on these particular training applications might be. I soon found plenty of glowing adverts for webinar platforms  scattered across the web,  but little is available that actually analyzes just how effective webinars are for delivering trainings.

A typical webinar screen window

I decided instead that it is possible to speculate on how we really look at a webinar site based on a study conducted by Jakob Nielsen PhD.  Nielsen, a former Sun Microsystems Engineer, has become world renowned as a (if not the) web usability expert and web user advocate. In 2006 he carried out a study where he observed the eye-tracking movements of 232 individuals when they were looking at websites. This eye-tracking study found that individuals tend to hover over particular areas of a web page regardless of the information on that particular page. He called these areas ‘hot spots’ and showed that we have a tendency to view web pages according to a specific pattern that shows an ‘F’ shape. (Nielsen, J. 2006).
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Nielsen’s eye scanning study has been the focus of considerable attention from website designers. Naturally they aim to place the most important information at the point on the page where the viewer’s eye is likely to linger most frequently. (However, it appears that webinar site designers have not sat down and taken a look at how our eyes look at 2D web pages.)

Image above taken directly from Nielsen's 'Reading pattern eye tracking' study

The image above shows the eye tracking hotspots on three different web pages. Please see Jakob Nielsen’s website useit.com for more information.

I have taken my diagram of a typical webinar page and superimposed the Nielsen ‘F-shaped’ viewing hotspots to see where webinar viewers are most likely to be looking when participating in a webinar. (See below).

A typical webinar window with superimposed Jakob Nielsen eye scanning hotspots.

My conclusion is that people wander off to other activities because of the low degree of visual stimulation provided by a webinar site!

Reference
Nielsen, J. (2006, April 17). F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content:. Retrieved April 12, 2009, from useit.com: Jakob Nielsen’s Web site: http://www.useit.com/‌alertbox/‌reading_pattern.html

Crumbling vanities

TheAbyss: Risen from the Darkest Depths

 I am a busy person so I really appreciate the notices sent out by Bettina Tizzy to the NPIRL group. These notices tell me when a new art exhibit is on show in Second Life. They also tell me about special events which might involve music and dance (one day I will make it to see the Zero G dancers perform!)  The NPIRL group also covers imaginative ‘builds’ which brings me to my present cyberloom post. I was reviewing my NPIRL note cards recently, and Bettina mentioned the Abyss build, and added ‘you have been to The Abyss?’ Well I had not, so I swiftly set out to make amends by paying a visit.

A view of one of the major Abyss towers

The Abyss. Detail showing pipes and concrete.

The Abyss turns out to be a shop. It reminded me (in an odd way) of one of those very exclusive tiny shoe shops you walk by in the posh parts of London. The sort that has a very bored shopping assistant who looks as though she fell out of a fashion magazine like an unwanted subscription card. Such a ‘real world’ shop may display about 12 pairs of shoes, each posed like sculptures on stands or spotlit glass shelving. The Abyss shop displays a range of cyberpunk items; not too many, after all post apocalyptic grunge has its own exclusivity in Second Life.

The Abyss. Detail showing windows sliding below ground level

The shop sits in a big damaged tower block. Turrets and towers reach up all around pointing up into the thick soup clouds above . Everything leans at dangerous angles, in places you can see the metal skeleton of  lost towers reminding us of the shattered World Trade Center. The whole construction, created by the brilliant builder Gene Replacement, seems as though it is standing on a broken earth. I expected to hear the stones and rubble shifting, bricks grinding each other into dust, and sudden mini avalanches of debris.

Abyss view showing turrets and towers

 Some of the towers reminded me of an old university, and I wondered if it was a statement about collapsing ivory towers? Or, perhaps this is a visual metaphor for the recent battering of so many American vanities? But then the location’s subtitle is “Risen from the Darkest Depths”. Maybe this is some alien, organism growing up from the earth’s molten core? You will have to go to The Abyss and decide for yourself. Just remember to dress up to go shopping here! Then you can pose casually amongst the other very thoughtfully dressed avatars who have dressed to be seen shopping at the Abyss.

Abyss shop detail (showing cloth designs by Khai Sinister)

 Visit The Abyss at http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Abyss/97/135/237/

Cheen Pitney’s Ice-Tigers at Blackwater

   Icarus by Cheen Pitney at the Blackwater Sculpture Art Gallery in Second Life

The virtual sculptor Cheen Pitney (great name) is a master at creating flying sculptures that defy the laws of physical world gravity. He is especially gifted at creating mythological creatures and  fabulous flying men with gorgeous sweeping wings (see ‘Icarus’ above).  

Phoenix with Rose by Cheen Pitney

His work is currently on display at Jurin Juran’s Blackwater Sculpture Art Gallery. As a novice of 3D building I am awed by Cheen’s ability to sculpt with prims. There are many, many artists at work in Second Life but few can ‘draw’ in 3D  so expressively. Cheen’s shapes have confident, expressive lines  reminiscent of a Japanese artist painting in inks (i.e. you have to get that line just right!)

Strange battle of the Ice-Tigers at Blackwater

 As I wandered around the Blackwater Sculpture Art Gallery I found myself wishing that some of Cheen’s art had been positioned higher in the sky. But then maybe that was very deliberate? By putting the sculptures just above the ground there was a sense of them having just leapt up into the air. Instead of a ‘frozen moment’ caught via a photograph, Cheen had created  frozen movement in a virtual world. The image above captures a fierce battle between Ice-Tigers; in the background you can see a sword statue (also created by Cheen) exploding into eternity, forever on the point of total fracture!

Close up of the Flying (marble) Bull

Visit Jurin Juran’s Blackwater Sculpture Art Gallery in Second Life to see more work by Cheen Pitney and other artists including: Starax Statosky/Light Waves, Masterful Escape, Madcow Cosmos, LittleToe Bartlett, Pavig Lok, Osprey Therian, Nomasha, Stella Costello, Stormy Roentgen, Ub Yifu, Loki Ball and Jurin Juran.