To develop the research model, we adopted two usability models, the landscape
preference model [35] and the architectural quality model [40], based on the analogy
between a virtual place and a physical place. These models were originally developed
to address usable and attractive physical space (or artifact) design, but have recently
been adopted in Web usability research for building usable Web sites (e.g., [43] for
the landscape preference model; [37] for the architectural quality model). A virtual
world consists of both artifacts (e.g., buildings, avatars, cars, and their embellishments)
and the surrounding system environment (e.g., backgrounds, mountains, and
oceans). People develop their perceptions of a place by integrating their perceptions
toward virtual artifacts and virtual background. The architectural quality model and
landscape preference model are both well suited for capturing perceptions of artifacts
in a virtual space as well as the virtual space itself, respectively [77]; therefore, we
propose an integration of these models as a plausible effort to help design usable
virtual worlds.