Practice-informed Patterns for Organising Large Groups in Distributed Mixed Reality Collaboration

Title of the Paper

Practice-informed Patterns for Organizing Large Groups in Distributed Mixed Reality Collaboration

Paper Information

• Subject Area: Application and design of distributed mixed reality (MR) collaboration in large-scale teams
• Keywords: Mixed reality, collaboration, scalability, f-formations, space and place

Research Background and Problem

• Issues or Challenges:

  1. In distributed collaboration, traditional spatial architectures fail to effectively convey social meaning. Digital interfaces such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams lack unified physical orientation and relational information, limiting spatial organization and the transmission of social meaning in distributed collaboration.
  2. Current mixed reality research primarily focuses on small-scale "one-on-one" or "dyadic" interactions, with insufficient attention to large-scale group collaboration.
  3. The complexity of multi-user, multi-role, and mixed presence (integration of physical and virtual spaces) has not been deeply explored.

• Significance of the Research:

  1. Mixed reality technology, by merging physical and digital spaces, has the potential to overcome spatial barriers in distributed collaboration.
  2. Addressing the technical demands of scalability in practical application scenarios (e.g., large-scale workshops or hybrid meetings) is crucial.

• Motivation and Related Work:

  • The authors aim to draw inspiration from "collaboration designers" (CDs), experts with extensive practical experience in how people collaborate in physical and digital spaces.
  • By leveraging the tacit knowledge embedded in CDs' design practices, the study seeks to explore how mixed reality can address the challenges of scalability in collaboration.
  • Related research (e.g., Ens et al.'s literature review) highlights the urgent need to include large-scale contexts in mixed reality collaboration studies.

Solution

• Proposed Approach or Solution:
  Developing Practice-driven Collaboration Design Patterns:

  1. Design Guidelines: Extract specific, applicable principles from CDs' practices in planning physical and digital collaboration spaces.
  2. Blended Collaboration Patterns: Establish eight patterns to expand the scope of mixed reality-supported collaboration and explore methods for organizing distributed large-scale teams.
  3. Theoretical Extension: Redefine the concept of f-formation and investigate how the relationship between "space and place" manifests in MR environments.

• Innovative Aspects of the Solution:

  1. Extending f-formation to hybrid environments: Incorporating virtual elements into traditional face-to-face interactions through visualization and interaction design.
  2. Dynamic use of space: Introducing flexible and scalable objects (e.g., resizable digital whiteboards) to support collaboration across teams of varying sizes.
  3. Multi-perspective design: Optimizing spatial interactions from the perspectives of users (first-person), observers (third-person), and collaborators (e.g., facilitators).

• Implementation Steps:

  1. Technology Probes: Participants tested a simplified mixed reality collaboration tool, such as the "Blended Whiteboard" application, and experienced a mixed reality tic-tac-toe game.
  2. Semi-structured Interviews: Gathered insights from CDs on their experiences and methods in designing physical and digital collaboration spaces.
  3. Low-fidelity Prototyping: Guided CDs to design large-scale team collaboration scenarios in distributed mixed reality environments using low-fidelity tools like modeling clay and paper.
  4. Validation of Design Principles: Conducted multiple rounds of feedback and iteration with CDs to refine the extracted design principles.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Results:

  1. Collaboration Space Design Principles:
     • Flow: Remove distractions to ensure participants remain focused on tasks.
     • Impact: Influence collaborators' emotions, behaviors, and thoughts through design.
     • Responsiveness: Ensure the collaborative environment adapts flexibly to team goals and scale.
  2. Eight Blended Collaboration Patterns (BCP):
     • Collaboration Zones: Divide spaces by activity type (e.g., plenary sessions, group work, inspiration triggers).
     • Plenary Circle: Use circular arrangements to foster trust and transparent discussions.
     • Blended Transitions: Support quick movement and transitions between different spaces.

• Innovative Value and Advantages:

  1. Proposes a comprehensive methodology and specific patterns applicable to research and technical implementation.
  2. Identifies theoretical breakthroughs in the underexplored complexity of "multi-user large-scale collaboration."
  3. Offers new insights from the perspective of designers, providing new directions for scalable collaboration design in MR systems.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  • The design principles were validated by six CDs, who provided positive feedback on their feasibility and practicality (average recommendation score: 9/10).
  • CDs indicated that these principles could guide the design of future collaborative environments.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  1. Limitations:
     • Data was primarily sourced from an organization using the MG Taylor collaboration methodology, which may introduce methodological bias.
     • CDs had limited familiarity with MR technology, potentially constraining their designs to existing collaboration tool experiences.
  2. Future Directions:
     • Further refine and develop the designed patterns into high-fidelity implementations.
     • Explore additional test scenarios involving different user perspectives, roles, and interaction settings.
     • Develop new MR design tools to rapidly demonstrate and prototype distributed collaboration interactions.