Informing the design of a virtual environment to support learning in children

This paper describes how different kinds of research activities (theory building and application, exploratory and experimental studies, prototyping, user testing) are instrumental in informing the design of virtual environments. We show how general user-centred design methods can be used when tackling specific issues concerned with the properties of virtual environments. To illustrate our approach we describe how we have designed a virtual theatre for young children to support learning through playing. We end with a general discussion of the core issues that need to be considered when designing virtual environments.