If you think virtual worlds are all about playing games, having fun, socializing or getting the latest global news, you are in for a pleasant surprise. Virtual worlds have a lot to offer to the business world today. Whether you are a designer of lifestyle products, medical equipment or a building architect you will agree with me when I say that you spend a lot of time, money and resources making prototypes of the products that you want to launch in the market. If you don’t get your product right or the consumer feedback is not favorable, you end up paying a heavy price in making modifications.
Now, the virtual world is offering very useful tools like Second Life which can blow over your designing blues! You just need to access this free tool on the virtual world, make your product design and get it reviewed and approved by experts very fast. Imagine the amount of time, money, resources and energy you would have had to spend in making a real model of your product and taking it to the distantly-located expert only to find that you will have to make some fundamental changes!
According to Paul Jackson, principal analyst with Forrester Research, sharing of 3-D or CAD models using collaboration software has been proven to be tricky, especially when much of the required data resides in proprietary design systems and virtual world tools help in solving that problem.
Second Life gives you the opportunity to present a simulation of your product and product concepts to your consumers and take their valuable feedback. You can take their suggestions, make improvements and come up with the real product which can be expected to have high saleability. After all, you have given your consumer the chance to have a say in designing a product meant for him!
Concepts like mass transit systems with individual pods for riders which cannot be prototyped in other ways are being tested using Second Life. If you think real world prototyping of your new product is going to be highly expensive you can cut the costs drastically by designing a virtual world prototype for it. It will let you know the plus and minus points of your model just the way the real model would have done.
However, virtual world tools seem to have drawbacks too. You cannot make highly precise prototypes. For example, you cannot make a prototype of a microprocessor using Second Life because you cannot build a highly detailed and accurate model with this tool. Moreover, there can be privacy and security concerns in using software that is easily available on the online network. Translation of ideas to mainstream design software can be an issue. Owing to the different sizes of the avatars estimating the scale can be difficult.
via: BusinessWeek
