Make Way for WayMaker

We describe a tool enabling non-professionals to create digital layouts for large-scale graphical virtual environments. The design tool is based on “elements of the city image ” as described by the urban planner, Kevin Lynch (1960). These elements serve as both organizational principle and navigational aid. Further work is needed to situate the tool within a virtual environment so that output from the tool is transformed as extensions to the virtual world. Here we describe the theoretical basis for the tool, implementation of an initial prototype that simulates a virtual world through a series of composited frames, and next-step revisions stemming from users ’ experiences with the prototype. Rationale Long ago the urban theorist Kevin Lynch pointed out the fundamental relationship between human cognition and urban form – the importance of the learned mental maps that knowledgeable locals carry about inside their skulls. These mental maps, together with the landmarks and edges that provide orientation within the urban fabric, are wha