Day 20 in the Virtual Office! Half Way Point!!
Total Time in VR: 2 hours and 32 minutes (across 4 VR sessions)
Use Cases: Focus Time (1 hour 19 min), 1:1 Meetings (1 hour), Evening Work (32 min)
Today marks the half way point for the VR Office Experiment. As with most Fridays, today was a very light day in VR, and that is okay. When I have lower VR days I have to keep reminding myself that I am trying to test out a realistic use of virtual reality for work. Some days VR isn’t the default. Some days if I forced VR into my work day I would be working against my own goals. Being a known VR Enthusiast, it is sometimes hard for me to convince people I am unbiased. But it’s my enthusiasm that is forcing me to stay as neutral as possible. There are plenty of VR fanatics putting their fingers on the scale in favor of VR’s viability for work (or the opposite). I think I’m holding a good balance half way through my experiment.
Cup Half Empty: I didn’t run into any major issues today, mainly because my usage was pretty low, and much of the time I spent in VR was just conversation. The cursor can’t go crazy if you aren’t using it that much (as I type this in VR, I’m just waiting for the cursor to go crazy, which would make me laugh). The fourth week saw the first sustained negative trends with the tech getting in the way of work once in a while. That needs to stop in the second half, or scaling this tech in it’s current form will be challenging, if not impossible.
Cup Half Full: I had one 1:1 meeting today that was going to move to Zoom so we could record it, but I didn’t want to do Zoom to start my Friday. Plus this co-worker is a BLAST to hang out with in VR. Not because of VR specifically, as I’m certain she is a BLAST to hang out with in the non-VR world as well! It was great to have that solid reminder today of how VR brings us together the same way it would if we worked in the same office. Because when we are in VR, we ARE in the same office!
#TLDR
What a wild four weeks. The difference out my window is stark! I think this first half proved out a few things like the possibility of longer term use in VR (with properly upgraded accessories), and that VR can be used for a wide range of meeting types. In the second half I want to focus on measurement tools. My daily numbers will prove valuable during my “data analysis phase” in January, but I need more data about the day to day experience (good and bad). So those surveys will appear in posts after the holiday week.
I started this blog to track my progress for myself. I chose to be more public about it, as I have many friends in the “VR community”. Thank you to the many of you who have chosen to read these posts and watch the videos. It means a lot to me that others find value in what I’m doing. I’ll be off next week (after the Week 4 Wrap Video on Sunday). Back with “Day 21” on November 28th.
Last note: I have a fun video going live tomorrow, so watch out for that one.
Till Tomorrow…
Carrier Pigeon XR 