Planning Your Navigable Space

LCC 2700: Intro to Computational Media

Project I:Create a Navigable Space

Week 4: submit and present a map of the spaceWeek 5: submit and present space itself

* clear navigational cues to script the interactor* consistent, logical space* a reason to move through it * at least 5 separate segments or “rooms”* at least 3 objects with behavior within the space

Experiencing Space

Codes of relationship• Left / Right• In front of / Behind• Forward / Back• Landmarking• Zones of proximity (Downtown; the South)• Pathfinding (2 stops on MARTA; Mapquest

directions)

Representating Space: Overview

Overviews

• Provide sense of boundaries and extent of space• Provide relationship of parts to the whole• From a god’s eye (bird’s eye) perspective• Sitemaps and good site navigation provide

overview of information spaces• Establishing shots, zooms in film provide

overview prelude to smaller scene; create illusion of proximities

• Digital media can create overviews that can be entered and navigated

Representing Space: Navigation

• Navigation produces sense of immersion• Space seems more real because you can move

through it• Space must be consistent

– Logically Retraceable (up/down, left/right)– In scale (lower floors matched to upper

floors)• Landmarks support orienteering

Coherent navigation leads to exploration and discovery

• Passing a “tripwire” can set off a dramatic effect • “Room” abstraction useful even for spaces that are

not rooms, such as mazes, forest, any logical space segment

• Glimpsing one space from another, or hearing/smelling something just out of sight, creates anticipation

• Sounds can become louder as you approach• Hidden objects can become more, or suddenly

visible

Creating Motivation for Exploration

• Placing objects in the space reinforces the illusion

• Following a fleeing character (White Rabbit) can motivate navigation, discovery

• Spaces and objects can be taken from familiar story genres: treasure boxes, outlaw hideout, alien space ship

• Story expectations from props and characters, sound and visual style create anticipation, suspense, curiosity

Geographical Space as Cultural Code

• East Coast, West Coast• Beltway (Washington)• The South, the Midwest(other countries have similar shorthand)

• Valley of the Shadow of Death• Underworld of the Dead • Mountaintop or Celestial habitation of the gods(in multiple religious traditions)

Space as Emotional Code

• Choice as a “fork in the road” or a “crossroads”• Despair as a forest (Dante’s inferno)• Being confused as being lost “at sea” • Drowning as being overwhelmed “out of his

depth”• “Walking the straight and narrow”: moral

orientation for spatial orientation