Designing for Collaboration in VR

Q&A with Accenture and MURAL

We sat down with adventuresome metanauts at Accenture to talk about MURAL’s exploration of collaborative frontiers of XR and what we’ve learned so far. The Q&A session showed some keen insights and points of consideration we thought worth sharing — enjoy!

This was a written Q&A conducted asynchronously via mural during a presentation and discussion. Both presenters’ answers are provided here for a more complete picture, and may include some redundancies.

Theory

Q. What is the future of collaboration in VR? What are some new dynamics that we will need to consider when collaborating in VR?

Erika: The big goal for all of the XR industry right now is seamless mixed-reality. You throw on your Apple/Google/Meta/Microsoft/whoever eyeglasses and can then instantly use hand tracking gestures to pull up content in AR, swipe over and send it to your screen, summon a coworker to appear in your home office with you… So VR is just a quick and easy way to start exploring the tip of the iceberg on all that, but the way you need to be thinking of XR is the seamless integration of the spectrum of options into your life and work, and how that would change things; where you live, do you drive to work, do you pick a more remote city, how does this change your hiring options when you can hire globally but work locally… it’s like going from land-lines to text messages, there will be entire new avenues of what XR does that not only enhances how we want to live and work, but will actually give net-new options.

ptom: We could do hours on this question alone. In short, “connection + creativity + process = collaboration”. Connection and Creativity are VR super powers, with infinite control over the space and activity, and ability to bring people together from anywhere at any time. The “process” portion is key to making that interaction a thoughtful collaboration, and that’s the intersection we find the most promising and where we’re focusing our initial experiments.

Q. Why Gaming thinking? Do people not join if it’s not a game / what’s the value of gamifying everything?

ptom: “Game” here is a functional definition for types of ritual (repeated activities) which include a space with boundaries, rules, artifacts, and goals, and a process which creates, opens, explores, and closes that “world”. Meetings are such a game, but which are frequently ill-defined on one or more of those points, leading to frustration and an ineffective use of time and energy. The “games” of collaboration in VR take advantage of the development and learning from games-for-play as a plentiful resource, as we develop games-for-work that bring people onto common ground with a shared mindset, goal, and the process/tools for evolving toward that goal.

Erika: Gamification is just the closest word; we’re not turning everything into a “game”, but we’re using the principles of teaming, sport, and cooperative engagement to bake the rules, routines, structure, and guidance of what a formalized process (i.e. a game) has that can be brought into the activities of facilitation and collaboration. If the development of the experience isn’t treated with the same end-to-end care that a game or sport would be if you were translating one from one medium to the other, we’ll miss out on the medium of VR enhancing the experience by allowing for too much flexibility without the coherent thinking of the rules, routines, structures, etc. After all, a game is just a process that is meant to be fun :)

Q. What have you found to be most effective in promoting collaboration via gamification and VR, or metaverse as a channel to audiences that feel like these are just for ‘child’s play’?

Erika: Leading with the activity and the outcome of what the “activity (game for work)” is and does, and then how VR is a medium for it as a vehicle, not a destination. We’re basically doing for collaboration and facilitation what Spreadsheets did for math — we want you do be able to do the professional, collaborative things you would do anyways, only now in the Future of Work, you can do it “here in VR” to and bridge the gap between co-location and hybrid work.

ptom: Much of what makes this successful starts with context, both in and surrounding VR:

• Safe experiences in appropriate doses.
• Intentionality of small, purposeful activities: clear objectives, boundaries, rules, and processes (less is more).
• Integration with traditional workflows: VR as augmentation rather than replacement.

People

Q. How are we making these collaboration spaces inclusive environments for people less comfortable with tech, with accessibility needs, or not having access to the gear?

ptom: The best practices for accessibility and inclusivity are still emerging — we’re staying close to that research, but there’s still more to learn. What we know so far is that VR has the potential to be a good “equalizer” across accessibility, ethnic, and socioeconomic boundaries if used correctly. We’re designing for shared-access with non-VR participants as well.

Erika: We specifically are keeping those points (less tech comfort, accessibility, access to gear) at the top of our lists on what we can help solve, very much taking the “inclusion-first” angle because collaboration in VR actually helps people feel & act more equal, so it could be a huge enabler of access to the conversation for people who, for many reasons, maybe didn’t in real world meetings, zoom/teams meetings, etc. It has massive potential to be a huge equalizer.

Q. Who is the “who” in your focus groups? What are the future needs of parents of young kids, women (who are asked to do a larger percentage of domestic work during WFH), and people of colour who face other barriers in VR collab?

Erika: The literal “who” is MURAL employees — however, the group and focus is also emphatically diverse and includes the considerations of everyone’s real-world obligations and diversity that they bring to the table, including working parents, people with english as a second (or third) language, geographic and cultural differences, different neurodivergencies, all of that is at the forefront of having these spaces be a viable, attractive, and durable alternative for any historically disadvantaged population who want VR to be a benefit and equalizer. We can’t solve it all, but it is a top priority and product design principle we have.

ptom: Our focus groups are starting with professional imagination workers and collaboration designers, which is the general target audience for MURAL’s Collaboration Intelligence tools. This covers a large spectrum of people within a specific type of work, but the groups have been relatively small to start; we have a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, and are focused on continually expanding the representative population with each activity and exercise.

Practice

Q. Does MURAL in VR mean using a VR headset?

ptom: Web users should be able to participate as well, in order to integrate the solution with additional platforms and existing tools. But for the best experience with the new technology, a headset of some sort will be required — that technology is quickly evolving and may eventually be a pair of glasses, contacts, or implants (for the truly adventurous/dedicated).

Erika: VR, AR, MR, whatever the industry brings us, we want to first prioritize democratic co-presence via these technologies, so if there is some upcoming high-tech AR eyeglass that would allow you to work with your team in a total passthrough, we’d love to make MURAL one of the things that you’re able to do there. We’re constrained by the hardware advancements of the big providers, but we want to be the go-to solution for presence XR based collaboration.

Q. Can people collab from web in VR too?

Erika: We hope to have options for this, including people having access to their mural content on their computer and in VR at the same time, and also using the available API options so that 2D video feeds can appear in VR for people on a computer, and VR avatars can appear on the computer — this is a LONG TERM goal, but one we don’t want to neglect. Part of what MURAL has to wait on is all the other platforms and providers that form this chain, from Meta to other apps, to APIs and SDKs, etc, this is a totally new space that is the wild west :)

Q. 1. Will MURAL be its own app in VR and will it be available for access in the Oculus Quest 2?
Q. 2. When will we be able to use MURAL in the Oculus [Quest]?
Q. 3. …and if no Oculus, just in the metaverse?

ptom: Oculus and Meta are a convenient accelerator for our initial prototyping, but are not intended to be the boundaries of our presence in the metaverse at large. We intend to be present and accessible across technologies and platforms as they continue to evolve. The shape of the solution is still changing rapidly, so timelines are in flux. For beta access to our applications and events, contact Steve Schofield <steves@mural.co>.

Erika: A question without a direct answer: “yes” but moving murals into VR is a secondary priority as a PART of the collaboration space — we do NOT want to ship a poor experience of just accessing MURAL through the Oculus (or any VR) browser — we want it to be just as good as IRL, with all the magical benefits of what VR can do to break the laws of reality and physics.

So yes, it will be an app on the Quest store for both the consumer and pro models, and much more than just a view of your mural content. It will be a fully-realized virtual space of spaces.

Bonus

Q. What are the sustainability implications of VR?

Erika: We don’t have 1st party hard-data on this, but the impact on air quality by not driving to work, not flying to meetings, not having to invest the money and carbon in what’s added by a typical “work retreat” or even daily commuting is a major part of what VR can offer. If we can get 90% of the interpersonal goodness from a large VR gathering, with a fraction of a fraction of the carbon footprint of commutes, dozens of flights, etc, that’s a massive change — not to mention people who can’t travel (or don’t want to travel) for caretaking, personal, or neurodivergent needs, this can be a game changer. See also “The environmental impact of the metaverse” (VentureBeat)

ptom: ↑ Ditto.

Q. When would it be best to use Horizon? When would it be best to use Altspace?

ptom: There are many, many platforms in different stages of exploration and evolution. We’re dedicated to collaboration wherever it takes us, but initially that means looking for places where we can partner with existing efforts that accelerate our learning. Meta’s a convenient and effective partnership/vehicle, so that’s where we are for now with the expectation of expanding as we go.

Erika: For us, the usage of Horizon Worlds has more to do with the support of Meta and the ability to be a part of the future of enterprise VR. We use Horizon Worlds for our prototyping not just for the technical feats it can do, but for the access to people, as we need to be able to bring in participants with little to no experience and teach them to onboard, build, facilitate, and collaborate in an unfamiliar paradigm. Being partners with Meta lets us do that in Horizon quicker, but any enthusiastic VR world builder could use whatever app they have access to; we’re mostly focused on testing our processes and methodology, eventually we hope that people on any platform can access what we make in the long run!

Steve: There’s a big difference here under the hood. Using AltSpace means relying on Unity devs to build custom environments and collab games and shipping them “over the wall” — the “old way”. Horizon worlds enables cross-functional teams to collaborate in real time, literally building, live play-testing and iterating the experience together. This serves to both de-risk the process and enable positive engagement throughout.

On Your Marks…

We’re just starting to figure out the possibilities of these new presence technologies and the shape of the emerging metaverse. The social and economic implications are huge, and even though the tech is still a long way from living up to its promise, we’re forging ahead to find out what it can do, and how it can be used to bring people together. Thanks for taking a moment to share these first steps with us.

Watch this space. ;)

Who We Are

MURAL

The XR team at MURAL is part of the Ventures group responsible for our Collaborative Intelligence initiative: making collaboration intentional and effective by cultivating spaces, compiling guided methods from luminaries (and the Luma Institute), and providing development and insight tools to level up your creative teamwork.

Erika Flowers

Digital Service Expert at NASA, fiction author, and co-founder of Practical by Design.

Paul Tomlinson (ptom)

Creative Scientist at MURAL, TIME Magazine and WSJ featured XR productivity pioneer, and author of “Working from Orbit”.