Virtual reality : the feeling of proximity, embodiment, VR remote work & theirs cognitives impacts

5 min readApr 22, 2021

( sum up CCI conf as speaker) User eXpereince : Meaning beyond design

(roundtable by the French-American chamber of commerce of Chicago )

The topic of this first roundtable is the USER EXPERIENCE. We were 3 presenters : (this event was mainly a membership event)

Joe: Gamerjibe, a gaming-inspired online platform allowing create interactive and immersive event experiences
Ognjen: the use of voice as a user interface
Marie: the feeling of proximity in VR and its cognitives impacts

First I will just introduce a little bit myself.

I’m Marie, I have been working in the retail industry for more than 10 years, first as a customer project manager. Then I decided to add IT skills thanks to experiences as a IT project manager to be able to take charge of a full omnichannel project ( functional & technical aspect).

Today I’m a UX/product strategist, so my aim is to find the best mix between business and user-centric goals to create great innovative products.

I’m also co-hosting on the ETR twitch TV show about XR called Expert talk

My goal is to reinvent the future customer/user experience thanks to the extended reality

In this post, I just want to sum up and focus on the feeling of proximity topics. I will share with you my point of view about the two other domains in an other post.

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“And I’m really happy to have you guys with us today because you each have a very specific way of defining or implementing user experience. And we are at a time where naturally engaging with an audience is crucial for the adoption of new modes of interaction. “ Sébastien Bru (founder of the FACC working groupe)

So let’s jump in! >>>

One of the biggest difference between classical and immersive video game: the feeling of proximity and its

The feeling of proximity and its impacts

Why makes the difference? What are the main advantages (added value)?

1. the social link,

The feeling of proximity is real in VR

Example : when you are close to another avatar in a classical video game, that doesn’t really matter

>> BUT IN VR you feel really uncomfortable

That the reason why VR companies spent a lot of money to develop comfortable social interaction zones like bubble or shield…
… Just to ensure a safe interaction zone for each user

Altspace VR Marie Raccuglia VR english lessons thanks to my avatar

2. More focus (attention)

A recent study by Stanford put in relief the “ Zoom fatigue effect” :

The amount of eye contact we engage and the size of faces on screens in on video chats is unnatural
Constantly seeing yourself in video chats is exhausting
Moreover, the cognitive load is much higher in video chat because you don’t have non-verbal communication
so we have to work harder to send and receive signals.

>> IN VR meeting you are not focusing on your zoom camera and all attendees and so on. That just seems more natural for the human brain

Marie Raccuglia VR meeting with the BMU lab ( thanks a lot )

3. More engagement

First, Movement is a sort of interaction, you move to do something or interact with someone, so you engage yourself in this interaction

And on Video chat, Movement is limited in ways that are not natural

IN VR meeting :

You Keep attention to the meeting because you are not static as in a classical video chat,
you could interact with each other and interact with your environment
And don’t forget in a VR meeting you can’t shut down your camera and just listen, or make something at the same time
You Must be focus on the meeting
So you are really engaged

4. More creativity

The avatar allows you to be someone else for a few hours
in a full customized environment
so this context is an added value for ideation workshops and so on.
The feeling of proximity enhance the team spirit and work or share in a safe environment allow news ideas to emerge
The possibility to interact with your environment also generates ideas thanks to the association of ideas.

Marie Raccuglia — My Japanese lessons in a wonderful and full immersive Japanese environment

I hope you have enjoyed it and I will give you the wish to go deeper into VR technology.

Thank Andrea and Sebastien for organizing this event. That was the first time, I will share in English in this kind of event, So It’s a real challenge for me… (I like challenges.)

Thanks for your attention

And don’t forget to keep curious and creative guys!

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