Second Life gets a new resident: My mom

I first experienced the Second Life registration process and user interface last year. I was not impressed. Writing in I, Lamont, I described an irritating, non-intuitive, and sometimes broken user experience. Nevertheless, I did see potential in the virtual world, and recommended that Linden Lab (the privately held company that operates SL) institute several UI and registration changes to help new residents:

There are a couple things that Linden Research could do to make it easier for new users, such as eliminating excess or redundant options, getting rid of the credit card requirement, and having users create their default appearance at the time of registration, instead of on their first visit to Second Life.

I am happy to note that Linden Lab has actually tackled two of these three UI/registration issues. In the process of introducing my mom to Second Life today (!), I saw that the credit card requirement has been dropped for ordinary accounts. Additionally, new residents can choose from a bunch of default avatars while still in the registration screens in the browser, instead of being forced to fiddle around with clothes and body types for the first time on Beginners' Island. My mom at first chose the "Girl Next Door" skin, but then opted for some sort of Japanese gangster chick persona which we proceeded to modify.

Unfortunately, there are still other problems with the UI that have not changed since last year. My mom was daunted by the array of buttons and options that clutter the SL client window and menus, and some processes are very difficult to figure out. For instance, once she entered SL for the first time, she couldn't completely remove the Japanese gangster chick skin and choose another default avatar, or switch to the baseline female avatar. We tried a workaround. I told her to bring up the Inventory menu, but we couldn't simply drag the avatar properties to the trash icon. We had to right click to see the "remove" options, and even then it didn't work for all of the avatar's qualities that are listed in the inventory, such as hair.

Despite these obstacles, my mom spent the better part of the afternoon in Second Life. She is an artist (she describes herself as a colorist) and the idea of exercising her creative and artistic skills in a digital environment appeals to her. Sure, I had to warn her about some of the odd distractions (tame and otherwise), but she still seems interested in the possibilities of this virtual world.