Understanding Virtual Design Studios

There are numerous approaches and techniques for setting up an environment for collaborative design. The most common approach is to extend the desktop environment to include tools for meeting and sharing files. This approach takes the individual work environment and adds tools for communicating with others. An alternative approach is to create a virtual world environment in which the collaborators meet, work, and organise their projects. This approach differs conceptually because it creates a sense of place that is unique to the project, sort of a shared office space. A variation on this approach is to create a virtual world that is the model of the product being designed. This is a more obvious choice when the product is an architectural design, but it can be extended to other kinds of design. This approach is essentially collaborating within the design. We present the three approaches and comment on their strengths and weaknesses. 1