This work is intended to research the future of work, and the impact that bringing a virtual workspace into a physical environment has on productivity.
Can we improve the process of work by changing the interaction an employee has with their work, by providing virtual reality tooling?
In a physically distributed team currently available XR Technologies are the best choice to delivering a better understanding of what others are working on, a better sense of physical proximity to others, and providing a show and tell space for external users. Existing non XR technologies are not capable of delivering all of these benefits to the same level.
This research topic is related to experiences without boundaries.
We are at the dawn of new types of consumer and employee experiences. Mobile will no longer be defined as just your phone — it is you and your connections to any object or device, bridging the digital and real and using physical touchpoints to mediate the continual exchange of data and services. Interactions no longer need to be fixed to a device. They are boundaryless and frictionless. Creating these new experiences requires a new mindset and an IT architecture intervention.
XR technology is the best solution for delivering productivity within the worklace, for a physically distributed team.
XR technology is not the best solution for delivering productivity within the worklace, for a physically distributed team.
In a physically distributed team currently available XR Technologies are the best choice to delivering a better understanding of what others are working on, a better sense of physical proximity to others, and providing a show and tell space for external users. Existing non XR technologies are not capable of delivering all of these benefits to the same level.
In a physically distributed team current XR Technologies are not the best choice to deliver a better understanding of what others are working on, a better sense of physical proximity to others, and providing a show and tell space for external users. Existing non XR technologies are capable of delivering all of these benefits better than XR technologies.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Physically distributed | a hybrid of remote working, and in-person working at office locations |
| Team | a team of employees and potentially contractors, generally working in knowledge worker roles |
| Knowledge worker | Workers whose main capital is knowledge. Examples include programmers, design thinkers, and any other white-collar workers, whose line of work requires one to "think for a living". |
| XR | XR or Extended Reality is catch-all term for real and virtual combined environments, including augmented reality, mixed reality, and virtual reality |
| Physical proximity | Referring to the psychological proxmity between people - a feeling of being physically close, and therefore able to form professional relationships |
| Show and tell | The practice of showing something to an audience and telling them about it |
- Interactive demos / showroom
- Persistent lab
- Sense of physical proximity
- visual element (graphical/pictorial)
- indication of sense of physical proximity is whether someone recoils when someone else seems to get close (or otherwise reacts physically
- benchmark and then follow-up measurement
- does cross-referencing go up after using the tool?
- Are there more group collaborations after using the tool?
- Show and tell space
- Easier collaboration
- Can invite anyone (securely)
- Accessible without expensive/specific hardware
- Device agnostic - at least across PC/Mac
- Controlled yet open access - collaboration across organizations
We believe XR technologies are the only technologies that can deliver all three benefits, and that they are mature enough to deliver these benefits now.
Test or asses multiple XR platforms and technologies to asses the viability of the platform delivering the benefits of a better understanding of what others are working on, a better sense of physical proximity, and providing a show and tell space.
Test non XR platforms against the same criteria (second life, mural, Minecraft, etc.)
- Is the solution open, but secure?
- Can you invite externals to collaborate?
- With or without specific or expensive hardware?
- Is there a strong sense of physical proximity?
- Do users react to physical stimuli like flinching, moving out of the way, not talking over one another?
- What is the setup cost? Time/ Expense/equipment
- What collaboration features are enabled above standard office 365 tools
- What types of media and information can be shared?
| Variable | Description | Relationship |
|---|---|---|
| Time to focus | The amount of uninterrupted time an employee has to work. | Independent Variable |
| Productivity | The amount of work an employee will complete. | Dependent Variable |
