• Many professionals will need to constantly be learning—possibly at greater frequency—throughout their careers in order to have a more secure relevancy and increase their value in the job market.
• Many of the best performing knowledge workers specifically will be more and more in demand and accessible from anywhere in the world.

Central to this project is the concept of Deep Work. Coined by Cal Newport in his book of the same name.[4]

Deep Work: professional activities performed in a state of distraction free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill and are hard to replicate. Deep work is necessary to ring every last drop of value out of your current intellectual capacity. (Newport, par 6)

Comparatively on the other end of this spectrum there is Shallow Work.

Shallow Work: Non-cognitively demanding logistical tasks, often performed while distracted. These efforts tend to not create much new value in the world and are easy to replicate. (par 15)

There are many facets to deep work. Newport provides arguments for it’s value and areas it benefits such as how it is essential for learning and mastering complicated things faster, essential for performing cognitively demanding tasks in order to produce at an elite level of both quality and speed as well as options for how to actively practice it. Virtual reality is the ideal medium for depth (pun intended).

Fortunately Cal Newport has shared his thoughts on how virtual reality can support different aspects of deep work on his blog. [5] [6] [7]

Additional Notes from User Research

More of my own theory is based on the environment’s speed. This is sort of based on Saliencey in the composition of a frame. Speed is used as a term analogous to attention grabbing as well as a budget that is to be managed. Relates to not only how many things are in a frame but what type of things. For example a person adds a great deal of speed to a frame vs an inanimate object. It is also about rhythm. The point is the level of minimalism of applications, tools and workspace effects level of focus. For example a chaotic messy workspace or one with just a lot of organized objects may be more distracting than an empty workspace or a workspace with a fewer unorganized objects. This sort of ties in with another hypothesis on the level of decision fatigue that happens throughout the day. Fewer mundane decisions allows for focusing on more important decisions. Building habits helps achieve this aim, like what to eat for lunch? If you eat the same thing everyday it allows for your mind to decide on other things.

There were other findings from my generative research and listening sessions but these are the relevant ones relating to this stage of the project.

• I use many apps that help me complete tasks faster and easier. The messaging application my company uses has many features like smart defaults and shortcuts for me to make appointments and reminders to speed up my workflow, requiring less physical effort.
• I use Post-its and I organize them as quick reminders or for quick notes. I keep them around my desk within arm’s reach, on my monitor or I group them based on the project or priority.
• I share my schedule and daily log in a notebook available for my manager to see what’s on my plate. Plus my manager can glance at my Post-its as a casual indicator of my tasks.
• At my desk I use a monitor with a laptop plugged in so I can use it as a second screen. Since I sometimes work from home I need to take my work with me.
• I enjoy the casual energy when working around my colleagues at the office but sometimes I need privacy to focus on getting writing done.

• I want the flexibility to change locations for the different types of work I do.
• I also need to change positions due to my spinal condition as it may become increasingly uncomfortable over time. Moving from seated in my wheelchair facing my desk to laying down on my back on an sofa but I don’t want it to disrupt my productivity.
• I want an adjustable desk for working when laying on a sofa but they’re very expensive. Currently I use a rolling desk for sitting upright when I’m at the sofa but I still eventually need to lay down.
• I prefer the natural light that comes in through the tall windows at the office. The office though can get too cold and can be uncomfortable.
• I wish my Post-its and documents, their layout and groupings can come with me when away from my desk or when I’m at home. I like to have them in glancing distance as reminders. Plus I like to have my weekly calendar in glancing distance on my desk.
• I’m kind of nervous of knocking stuff off my desk which would require my co-workers for help.
• I also like to work while out of the office; either at home or even try to get some things done while waiting at the doctor’s office for example.

“When I have a sharp pain in my back or my hand shakes I need to change positions and lay down so I can be more comfortable, ease the pain and continue my work.”

“I need to change my position sometimes while working due to my health condition and may get uncomfortable at times.”

“I need my workspace to be more adaptable and portable.”

“I should have an adjustable and adaptive workspace and transitioning from sitting on my wheelchair facing my desk to laying down on my sofa shouldn’t be a big deal.”

“I like to change environments depending on the type of work I am doing.”

“I would like to have flexibility in my workspace. Both for control of my environment and organization but also on social level.”

Certain solutions for some of these problems have been suggested. Such as this powered adjustable workstation. However it may be very expensive and inaccessible for those that need it.

A noted aspect highlighted by Cal Newport regarding deep work is Location Boosted Cognition. Newport cites in his book plenty of examples of people such as J.K. Rowling going to a hotel to write the final Harry Potter book. Bill Gates having a “Think Week” at his hideaway cottage in a forest to define the problems he wants to solve. Carl Jung’s Bollingten Tower as an isolated place to do his thinking and work. Jack Torrance at the Overlook Hotel for his writing project. Plenty of examples of a distraction free dedicated environment for supporting cognitively demanding work, though not everyone can rent a hotel room for weeks at a time, or has a dedicated physical space separate from their home. Virtual reality might help in this endeavor.

Virtual reality comes in different forms and new products have been released every year since this new VR renaissance has begun. Standalone products—such as the Oculus Quest—offer the unique affordance for their portability. Wireless PC VR headsets or attachments—such as HTC’s Wireless Adapter for their products—though not portable in the same way, it is liberating by comparison to wired VR. For this stage of the project I mainly focused on wired PC VR, though I considered my solutions for the future possibility of allowing someone’s workspace, it’s layout and how it’s organized to be more and more portable.

• People who use computers with various motor disabilities use it, find it valuable and find it to improve productivity.
• Productivity is a broad abstract thing to measure. Qualitative data collected through surveys may be an easier low cost approach but also including behavioral data would provide a clearer more objective picture.
• Some considerations relevant to deep work may be in the realm of learning and mastering complicated skills faster then seeing how these newly mastered skills translate into what is being performed and produce is rare and valuable and comparing speed with quality.
• People actually leave their workspace that obstructs deep work to use it.
• Beyond replicating their physical workspace, new creative ways of organizing their workspace that can only be done in VR.
• With standalone VR; bringing your workspace with you.

An important consideration when discussing opan-plan offices is remote work or telecommuting. Working remotely is an ever increasing trend; abiet a slow one [14]. With it comes many benefits such as less time commuting—which may be better for the environment—and lowers costs for a company and employees. Even though the physical environment of where the user is located plays a major role in this stage of the project, the main facet of remote working as it relates to deep work is collaboration and communication. These subjects are out of scope here. Some more on this subject though in the section on Environments.

VR will not be a complete solution for the different obstacles obstructing deep work. What it does to privacy; that will require multiple solutions since their are many forms of privacy. Digital privacy, privacy over what you are working on and privacy over your behavior.

Problems of Focus? VR allows for an immersive experience and may provide complete focus or provide an immense amount of distraction. Considerations need to be made on how it is used. One could just as easily bring shallow work and related applications into VR and the problem will carry over. People may use headphones to mitigate noise distractions however there are still many visual distractions happening in their physical environment as well as within the applications they may use. In the realm of deep work email, messaging apps and especially social media fall into the category of shallow work (if “work” at all) and thus are classified as a distraction from depth.

How people spatially organize things in terms of depth; typically things we placed closer to us are more important than things we placed further away. Other arrangements such as from top to bottom may convey time, importance or hierarchy—culturally and context dependent. Another is left to right; another form of conveying time, again culturally and context dependent in how these flows are perceived.

VR expands the use of digital spatial semantics. That is creating a space which allows users to spatially arrange objects in order to make sense of data and its meaning which then reveals relationships and connections. Also—like all forms of computing—VR allows a space for external memory which compensates for our limited memory; allowing people to see more detail and to keep information accessible and visually available. A good example described by Jody Medich from an article she wrote on What Would a Truly 3D Operating System Look Like?

“The note to buy milk on the fridge, the family photos stuck in the mirror, and putting ‘must remember’ items near the car keys are all examples of spatial external memory.”

Positions

• Seated
• Can the chair rotate or not?
• Standing
• Laying down

Physical Environment

• Public space with other people around (i.e. an open office, library).
• Private space (i.e. at home or in a private office).

Comfort

• VR headsets vary in how comfortable they are for different people and how long they can be worn before people may start to feel physically uncomfortable on someone’s head. Improvements in this area are constantly being made and headset makers have made this a high priority however there is still plenty of room for improvement especially if someone is expecting to wear a headset for ~8–12 hours.
• Another important consideration is many with certain motor disabilities need assistance putting a headset on, taking it off and making adjustments to fitting and optical calibrations.
• Resolution, specifically for reading large amounts of text. Due to current resolution limits and how current VR displays and optics are designed many considerations need to be made on text size and the distance they are from a person’s eyes. Even if these considerations are optimally made some user may encounter discomfort or eye strain after a long period of time depending on the text density.

Tracking restrictions or capabilities

VR is an emerging and rapidly changing technology. Different products currently utilize different tracking technologies, capabilities and have different levels of tracking fidelity. At the time of this writing it seems the future direction of VR products is to maximize tracking fidelity as much as possible. Relevant here is I focused on designing and developing for the Oculus Rift (CV1) and the HTC Vive at this stage of the project. Both headsets have the capability for tracking rotation and translation for the headset and both controllers up to a room-scale size environment. However not everyone has the physical space or the ability to move in a room scale environment. My decisions were informed by SteamVR Play Area Size Stats and Oculus’ Hardware Report for the Rift. For the Rift my initial priority is to make sure those who may be limited to a stationary position with only front 180° degrees of tracking coverage and may not be able to reach to the floor. Even though these constraints may have been born out of technical limitations that are becoming or are already a non-issue I believe they have served in ensuring those with limited mobility or access to a larger space are served with a design solution.

Through testing early prototypes with people with motor disabilities it was concluded that gamepad support would be a viable option. Depending on a person’s abilities, gamepads don’t require much physical exertion and depending on how the button mapping is designed can be used with one hand. As I learned that some people can only use one hand for any type of input device, so designing a bimanual tool in VR with both motion controllers should have at least a one-handed option to perform most if not all of the core tasks.

I mainly designed for Microsoft’s Xbox One controller however here is a handy resource on Controller Ownership on Steam. I did research into the Xbox Adaptive Controller which has enabled people whom have otherwise been excluded. This device opens many input options through adaptive accessories that may bind to the input actions originally designed for a standard controller.

Some future considerations is implementing support for keyboard, mouse and trackpad. Though they may not be spatially tracked and thus visible in VR making keyboard input limited.

How someone moves around a virtual space is an important ergonomic consideration. A good start for any locomotion mechanic (depending on the type of application) is to consider not having one. Instead, design the environment to encourage people to move on their own as they would in the real world. Based on considerations previously mentioned a turning assist function was necessary (typically called snap turning). Through user testing I found some people with certain motor disabilities could greatly benefit with a pitch assist option.

With the aim of encouraging movement I tried designing a dynamic desk which will change length and width dimensions based on the user’s defined play area. Getting data from Oculus’ Guardian or SteamVR’s Chaperone system. This will serve multiple purposes; obviously for users to have a another landmark that is within close proximity to place content on or around but also to have a more familiar type of defined boundaries to encourage movement as oppose to the platform enabled grids (Guardian or Chaperone).

Dynamic Desk with SteamVR’s Chaperone displayed.

Based on testing, this item had mixed results in serving it’s purpose and also got in the way of other purposes. For example if someone was changing positions from their wheelchair to a sofa, the sofa may be at the edge of a physical play space (as I assume most sofa are if they’re present) and thus the user would find themselves inside of the desk. If they lay down their vision is possibly occluded by the table. I concluded it should be an option to remove and add the dynamic desk to a workspace. A good next step would be enabling the user to adjust the height of the desk or automatically calibrate the table height based on the user’s starting height.

Cocoon is a level of organization and grouping of content that is the most personal. It brings your content and it’s layout to you and may reorientates to your facing direction. Originally called a “Personal Volume” however through testing people had no idea what that meant since “volume” is a term usually associated with other concepts relating to sound. Not sure “Cocoon” is a better substitute? The tricky aspect to designing this was it’s visual design; it needed to convey it was active and where the boundaries were but not be distracting to the content that was on the inside of it or occlude the environment and content on the outside of it.

Using the Cocoon to organize stuff and having the spatial layout reorient to the users position, whether they’re seated or laying down in any location.

The Workspace Menu is a prototype meant for either organizing workspaces or content within each volume and designed to scale to as many volumes as the user needs. Possibly always be available to navigate directly between any workspace. Still needs more feedback and user testing.

Organizing Workspaces with the Workspace Menu.