Designing avatars

This document summarizes three studies on avatars leading us to propose considerations for designing avatars. A background study was conducted on earlier avatar research and the key findings are summarized in this document. Based on the background study, we conducted focus groups discussion with active online community users (who participated in social networking web sites, virtual worlds, and massively multi-player online games) to gain a better understanding of what aspects in designing avatars are important to users. From those two studies we elaborated a list of considerations topicss pointing out aspects that designers can use for avatar design. Moreover, for our avatar design project, we conducted a third study where we investigated the use of online avatar design applications. Through the analysis of this third study, we evaluated the considerations from the user point of view. In conclusion, we discuss the findings and propose a summarized list of the considerations that appear essential when designing new virtual worlds involving avatars. These design considerations concern the way avatars look, what they can do, the way they can be used for communication, the context in which they are created, how many avatars can be created and in under what kind of governance, who owns the avatar, and how to plan avatar design.