Virtual Office HQ

XRArt Direction

Nov 26

Building a virtual environment to make remote teams more productive and feel less isolated

While the project had many whimsical pieces, the core of the work was to conceive of the virtual environment as an interface. Many of the same challenges we encounter in designing 2D user experiences, like discoverability, establishing visual hierarchy, pattern building and breaking, and minimizing cognitive load; were also present in this 3D interface, but often with unique twists. From the standpoint of methodology, we followed principles familiar to 2D design and spatial wayfinding.

Spatial Layout

*A wayfinding map of the island. Locations could be clicked to teleport to them.*

We knew that remote teams need several distinct kinds of spaces, and give our expected capacity, we knew we would need several of each kind of space on the island:

Private rooms
Quiet, access controllable spaces big enough for 4-6 people but small enough for a comfortable 1:1 meeting.

Large Private Rooms
Quiet, access controllable spaces big enough to accommodate large meetings of 15-25 people.

Team Studios
Porous spaces that could be the home base for members of a given team. More casual and individually distinctive, with a variety of affordances to maximize the space’s versatility.

Large Amphitheater (All Hands)
A large central courtyard large enough to accommodate the entire company’s team on the island of ~70 people. In order to keep the island feeling comfortably small, we made this space convertible from a grass open space into a large circular table, and a sunken amphitheater via an admin-accessible control room in a cave on the island.

Casual “third spaces”
These important spaces were added specifically to recreate a feel of a shared commons. They were each distinct and fun, and some were harder to find, which rewarded exploration. The official third spaces were an island restaurant and lighthouse, a beach bonfire area, a reflecting pond, a treehouse, and a cabana. Unofficial spaces included a cave, a small pleasure boat anchored off shore, a coral reef, and a sunken ship.

Wayfinding

The island was designed to be easy to navigate and had numerous visual landmarks to orient visitors, but we also wanted to ensure that adequate signage with a coherent set of patterns was present as well.

Look and Feel

The look of the island was established through many sketches and studies, and was largely developed in tandem with the island layout and architecture.

Results

The outcome from this effort was a joyous, vibrant space that worked well and built on the many learnings we had from previous iterations. Several companies agreed to use the virtual HQ on a trial basis and in large part the feedback was very positive. What we could not foresee in 2019 was that the demand for this kind of product would grow enormously the following year during the COVID lockdowns. At the time that we tested this with trial customers, the determination was that it was a delightful experience, but one that there was not sufficient demand for.