Design Principles for Coordination in the Metaverse

Abstract

The Metaverse represents the next generation of the Internet that, at this instant in time, is still a concept. It is envisioned to provide interconnected experiences that are immersive and varied. This vision challenges both designers and users to understand its possible coordination architecture and develop strategies for participation. One way to understand the concept and affect its instantiation is to take a design science approach that articulates design principles that might guide the exploration of different architectures. We apply concepts related to platforms and business ecosystems as well as ideas about facilitating technologies including choreography and orchestration as ways of blending together experiences, providing transitions between virtual locations. We derive three design principles from an analysis of Metaverse scenarios: Narrative composability, social assortativity, and path discoverability. Thinking through these aspects of design leads to a discussion about the tradeoffs that will face designers of the Metaverse.