The winner of the User Interface design contest was announced today, and congratulations to Rheta Shan who took the top prize, followed by Jacek Antonelli and Roy Cassini.
The difference between the entries was so small that making a decision was difficult and I can’t thank the judges enough for their hard work and wisdom: Ordinal Malaprop, Eristic Strangelove, Vint Falken and Keystone Bouchard.
Indeed, the differences in approach among the top three highlighted that there were individual and highly creative approaches to what was a broad mandate: improve the user experience through changes to the viewer.
Without the hard data that might be available to a usability team, the contestants used what all of the judges agreed were insightful approaches to rethinking the user experience. On that basis alone, all of the entries were winners, and each contributed in some way to broadening the range of how we articulate current obstacles in the viewer and their possible solutions.
First Place: Rheta Shan
Rheta Shan’s entry, like all the entries, had specific features that myself and the judges would love to see implemented today. She also rethought the interface “from the ground up” giving us a logic in how the functions of the viewer should align to user activities. Her innovative use of a “work bench” for specific functions such as photography and video or building demonstrated this philosophy.
As a special thank you to Rheta, we have created a quick Flash-based demo of her entry. See it here and click on the avatar and the ‘flashing’ icons to see how her design works.
Second Place: Jacek Antonelli
Jacek’s entry ran an extremely close second. In this case, one of the strong appeals of the design was that it could be fairly easily implemented. In fact, tests of Jacek’s menu system are already making the rounds. An innovative approach to inventory management was a strong feature of this entry, and there was more than one of us that wished we had that tool today.
Third Place: Roy Cassini
Finally, Roy’s entry focused on the new user, and saw the interface not just as an opportunity for simplified menus and functions, but as a learning environment for the new user. His implementation of tutorials as part of the process of learning the new viewer was a stand-out contribution aimed at easing the new user’s transition during the first hour.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank the other contestants. ALL of the entries truly deserved a winning spot.
Thank you to everyone, including the folks at Metanomics for helping to promote the work of the contestants and the hard efforts of the judges.
I’ve personally learned a lot from this process and look forward to continuing to promote the creative talents of the Second Life residents as participants in the development of a better virtual world.
Anyone up for entering a mash-up contest? 
[…] The winner of the Second Life User Interface Contest has just been announced at a special edition of the Metanomics show in Second Life: Rhita Shan is the winner, and you can read about this contest and watch the projects on Dusan Writer’s Metaverse. […]
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UI Contest winners announced…
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Frankenviewer?
Dunno who came up with that but please, Dusan, can we call it that?
SL UI Design Contest Winner (and a lot of photographs)…
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[…] not context-based like the suggestion by Roy Cassini in his User Interface contest entry, it’s a step in the direction, and by being Web-based rather than hard-coded in the viewer […]
[…] public links >> winner Congratulations: UI Contest Winners Saved by bebond20 on Sun 26-10-2008 Winner of Free Domain Name August 2008 Saved by […]
[…] Big Spaceship do have some form in the sphere, having played a pivotal role with 30 Days of Night immersive game. There’s no firm timeframes for when we’ll see the improvements. Like any user interface changes, the challenge will be the get a balance between simplicity for new users and the more complex needs of longer term Second Life residents. Hopefully they’ve already had a browse of some great innovations already created by Second Life residents. […]
[…] looks like I ended first in the SL Interface Contest finals. My heartfelt congratulations go to Jacek Antonelli and Rick van Wal, aka Digado, whom I […]
A Look Back, A Look Ahead……
Greetings all! M Linden here. I’d like to wish you, your families, friends, partners and loved-ones a happy and healthy New Year. As we come to the end of the year, I thought I’d share some of the wonders of Second Life I’ve encountered over the past….
A Look Back, A Look Ahead……
Greetings all! M Linden here. I’d like to wish you, your families, friends, partners and loved-ones a happy and healthy New Year. As we come to the end of the year, I thought I’d share some of the wonders of Second Life I’ve encountered over the past….