Finally a Case for Collaborative VR?: The Need to Design for Remote Multi-Party Conversations
PubDate: July 2020
Teams: University College Dublin
Writers: Anna Bleakley, Vincent Wade, Benjamin R. Cowan
PDF: Finally a Case for Collaborative VR?: The Need to Design for Remote Multi-Party Conversations
Abstract
Amid current social distancing measures requiring people to work from home, there has been renewed interest on how to effectively converse and collaborate remotely utilizing currently available technologies. On the surface, VR provides a perfect platform for effective remote communication. It can transfer contextual and environmental cues and facilitate a shared perspective while also allowing people to be virtually co-located. Yet we argue that currently VR is not adequately designed for such a communicative purpose. In this paper, we outline three key barriers to using VR for conversational activity: (1) variability of social immersion, (2) unclear user roles, and (3) the need for effective shared visual reference. Based on this outline, key design topics are discussed through a user experience design perspective for considerations in a future collaborative design framework.