Proxemics and Social Interactions in an Instrumented Virtual Reality Workshop

TL;DR

This study uses instrumented virtual reality environments to analyze social interactions during workshops, revealing how space size influences group dynamics and personal space, informing better virtual space design.

Contribution

It introduces a novel instrumented VR platform and a mixed-methods approach to analyze social interactions, providing new insights into virtual workshop dynamics.

Findings

Smaller rooms promote cohesive group formation.

Larger rooms challenge group cohesion but increase personal space flexibility.

Data-driven insights can improve virtual workshop design.

Abstract

Virtual environments (VEs) can create collaborative and social spaces, which are increasingly important in the face of remote work and travel reduction. Recent advances, such as more open and widely available platforms, create new possibilities to observe and analyse interaction in VEs. Using a custom instrumented build of Mozilla Hubs to measure position and orientation, we conducted an academic workshop to facilitate a range of typical workshop activities. We analysed social interactions during a keynote, small group breakouts, and informal networking/hallway conversations. Our mixed-methods approach combined environment logging, observations, and semi-structured interviews. The results demonstrate how small and large spaces influenced group formation, shared attention, and personal space, where smaller rooms facilitated more cohesive groups while larger rooms made small group formation challenging but personal space more flexible. Beyond our findings, we show how the combination of data and insights can fuel collaborative spaces' design and deliver more effective virtual workshops.