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Second Life, (Reuters) - Doug Thompson loved Second Life from the start, but there was one aspect he hated — its notoriously clunky user interface.

“The Second Life interface sucks,” he wrote on his blog, recalling his first days. “Which will lead to the next sacred cow, which is that the newbie orientation experience sucks.”

But rather than gripe, Thompson, through his Second Life avatar Dusan Writer, came up with an idea: hold a contest throughout Second Life to see who could figure out how to make the interface better. And to sweeten the pot, he committed L$800,000 of his own money, almost three thousand American dollars, to the three avatars who could come up with the best design.

“I like to think about virtual worlds, what can make them better, Second life linden how to attract and retain new users. It’s mind candy for me,” Thompson said. “I thought I’d love to see what people mean when they say a simpler interface is better.”

Thompson received six entries for his contest. He assembled a panel of judges, and on Tuesday named avatar Rheta Shan as the first prize winner and recipient of L$500,000 (about US$1,850).

Shan’s proposal was for a series of new layouts and improvements to all of Second Life’s menus. See the winning perspectus here(PDF document).