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A study to understand human behaviour and experience in the context of remote collaboration
 

Overview

Since the dot-com bubble burst back in 2000, technology has radically transformed our societies, our daily lives, and ourselves. It has been embedded in our lives in such a way they become an extension of our body and abilities (our cyborg selves).

 

We have inquired how our body and mind (particularly body language, gestures, vision, mental and physical well-being) are coping with changes in our lifestyle choices that change our experiences in the context of remote collaboration. 

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In the research we explored two case studies:

Case study 1: The amount of eye contact is dramatically increased through video calls. We tend to position ourselves in the center of the screen and our movement is limited. If you want to show someone that you are agreeing with them, you have to do an exaggerated nod, put your thumbs up or laugh with a higher volume to be heard. Are video calls changing our natural body responses and actions?

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Case study 2: How has human vision & behavior of how we scan or read, adapted during remote working, and how nuanced is the future of the human eye and its behavior going to be?

 

Through the above case studies, we further tried to find insights on the following questions through research, speculating future, conducting activities, and user research:

  • Are video calls changing our natural body responses and actions?

  • How has human vision & behavior of how we scan or read, adapted during remote working?

  • How can we sense, think, feel and relate to experiences?

  • How changes to lifestyle could have an influence on bodily changes in the future?

  • Do we judge our mental and physical well-being just based on the experiences within the screen?

  • Are external experiences a contributing factor?

  • How are external experiences we have, shaping us?

Time duration

One week

Studio

Somascape lab space

at Srishti Manipal

Mentor

Vineeta Rath

Team

Aayush Saraf

Anantha Padmanaban

Ashish Yadav

Vinay Vayetla

Keywords

Human adaptation, experiences, technological advancement, soma, mental and physical well-being, video fatique, computer vision syndrome, remote collaboration, design probe, body and mind, Richard Shusterman, Merleaou-Ponty

Introduction

Humans have evolved and survived through time due to their ability to adapt to changing environments. We have the innate ability to adapt and relate to our things and surroundings to be part of something, to belong. Our bodily movements organize themselves based on the normative standards of the context we are in. We have been affected by our natural body movements and actions. They are connected.  

 

With over 8 billion smartphones on the planet now, we have more smartphones than people. Data like this illustrates how quickly individuals adopt innovations. When technology advances, our lives change.

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We rarely question our everyday ways of moving about and take for granted what we have learned a long time ago, which has made us able to master our own bodies. Generally, this is a good thing, but bad habits which may be causing unnecessary damage or restrictions to our bodies are also a part of this. The possibility of improving one's perceptual faculties is through better use of the soma with active engagement. (Shusterman 2012)

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The patterns of our everyday lives have changed. At one time, we were active and physically dynamic, however, today, we rely on gadgets for most of what we do. As our species develop, our behavior and transformations may have to change to accommodate these mechanical advances. By evolving technology for ourselves, we are separating ourselves from nature. As automation, complexity, and know-how become more prevalent in the world, the human mind is adapting to them. We have now made virtual universes inside the screen where we lead equal lives.

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Remote collaboration and working are not new. Changes in times and the Covid pandemic have led to the rise of working from home. Businesses are leveraging the home-work situation to increase productivity. While some companies see remote work as a temporary solution, others see it as a long-term solution with substantial benefits. In light of the trend's longevity, are we creating applications to help users manage their mental and physical well-being? Are we overlooking the finer points of the 'experience' the users might have to collaborate remotely? Are our experiences with artifacts actually reacting to our bodily movements or are they influencing us, the users, to make changes as a result?

Preliminary Research

Soma-Aesthetics and soma-based design

Somaesthetics is a phenomenological concept sprung by pragmatist and philosopher Richard Shusterman through the framework of Merleau-Ponty. The soma, he describes, ‘denotes not mere physical body but the lived, sentient, intentional, body that involves mental, social, and cultural dimensions. (Shusterman 2011). Merleau-Ponty and Shusterman give priority to the Leib(body) over the Körper(mind), and they are similarly dedicated to fighting the body-mind dualism; ‘It is as living bodies that we exist in the world’ and ‘The body is our general medium for having a world’ (Merleau-Ponty 1962 p.283 in Dag Svanaes 2013) ‘For the body is our indispensable tool of tools, the necessary medium of our being, perception, action, and self-presentation in the world.’ (Shusterman 2018a)

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Soma talks about perception through an active body. It emphasizes the importance of movement. For the world to become accessible and perceivable movement is needed, our perception is steered towards movement, to the extent that we cannot even see what is not moving. But we are forced to stay seated during a video call for hours.

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By learning, understanding and engaging with movements involving our physical body, we may extend our experiences and create richer and potentially better ways of being in the world.

Experiences

Are the experiences we encounter with artifacts really functioning according to our bodily movements or are the experiences shaping us, the users, to make changes in order to use the artifact? 

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Soma design starts with experiencing, feeling, engaging with our own experiences, employing the first-person perspective, carefully honing an experiential quality that will color your whole design. Touching, smelling, feeling the materials to extract their aesthetic potential and affordances take the front seat.

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As a group, we conducted an activity to takes pauses, observe, sense and, relate to the experiences we have with the environment or artifacts around us. 

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The following are questions that arose as I pondered and questioned experiences that I generally take no notice of:

  • Are communications during remote collaborations changing the way we speak? Do we try to reduce our explanation to mere bullet points to not exceed meetings duration? There can also be miscommunication or confusion via texts, emails, or conference calls as we are missing out on body language. This could cause anxiety or affect morale?

  • Are we changing the way we sit to accommodate a chair, or does a chair accommodate your needs, do we hold our phone while performing an action according to our natural body movements or are we being unconsciously forced to?

  • Is a kitchen counter designed and built for the individual who uses it or is it just for aesthetic and price satisfaction? Do individuals tend to lean forward, stress their shoulders while making use of their counter space?

  • Repetitive actions with our thumb or index finger to use touch interfaces can cause stress and strain to the wrist. Will adjusting and adapting to these repetitive actions lead to certain enhancements or abilities within our body to accommodate as humans evolve?

  • Why is it difficult for the older generation to adapt to touch interfaces? Touch is a fundamental way we interact with surfaces around us. Younger generations are able to adapt to technology faster. Are the experiences they have with other technological devices at a young age shaping them?

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Others:

  • Does a texting style change the way a person talks in real life?

  • How has human vision & behavior of how we scan or read, adapted during remote working?

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Reflection

We realized how we often don't take pauses in our lifestyle choices and actions to observe and speculate how the experiences we have with our environment and artifacts shape or change us. We decided to learn more about our bodily changes and adaptations during remote collaboration.

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Case study 1: The amount of eye contact is dramatically increased through video calls. We tend to position ourselves in the center of the screen and our movement is limited. If you want to show someone that you are agreeing with them, you have to do an exaggerated nod, put your thumbs up or laugh with a higher volume to be heard. Are video calls changing our natural body responses and actions?

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Case study 2: How has human vision & behavior of how we scan or read, adapted during remote working, and how nuanced is the future of the human eye and its behaviour going to be?

Case study-1

Group - Anantha, Ashish, and Namita

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The amount of eye contact is dramatically increased through video calls. We tend to position ourselves in the center of the screen and our movement is limited. If you want to show someone that you are agreeing with them, you have to do an exaggerated nod, put your thumbs up or laugh with a higher volume to be heard. Are video calls changing our natural body responses and actions?

Mind and  body

Remote Collaboration is not new. People have mixed feelings towards this work arrangement. But there has been a growing discomfort among people due to the Pandemic.


The sudden closure of many offices and workplaces at the beginning of 2019 ushered in a new era of remote work for millions of employees. During this period of working from home, it's very important to keep ourselves motivated which has been difficult for many. The boundary between our work and our personal lives has become blurred. There is extensive use of digital devices to connect with peers which have increased screen time drastically. How have our bodies and mind adapted to the changing lifestyle? Are there changes in our natural body language, gestures, actions as we adapt to the virtual collaboration experiences?

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Merleau-Ponty discusses how our body organizes itself to perceive something better in relation to the external world. We optimize ourselves. Shusterman points out that, this optimization that happens could be governed by the normative standards within which we are a part. For instance, during a work video call, we tend to look more appealing and formal for the viewers, but it could be different if we are on a call with our family members or close friends. Our bodily movements organize themselves based on the normative standards of the context we are in.

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When conscious acts are put into unconscious acts, what happens to our mental well-being? Most nonverbal communication and signal reading is automatic and performed outside of our conscious awareness. Orienting ourselves to fit within normative standards means that we adjust our gestures, our positions, our facial expressions, and how we speak nonverbally to be seen positively by others.

Factors contributing to changes in our natural bodily responses and actions:

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  • When on a video call and it is time to speak, we send two kinds of signals to the viewers. Even though our voice carries the message through words, a lot of information is carried visually through our appearance, facial expressions, physical behaviour, gestures, etc. There are mannerisms that involve certain body parts or the whole body such as, rocking, swaying, tapping the fingers, frowning, pacing adjusting hair or clothing. These are physical manifestations of nervousness. We are aware of our verbal mistakes but most of the non-verbal signaling and reading of signals is automatic and performed outside our conscious awareness and control, but what happens to our mental well-being when we try to make the unconscious act conscious to hide our current mood? The gestures we make, our facial expressions, and the nonverbal qualities of our speech – all contribute to how others view us. These conscious changes are adapted to optimize ourselves to fit within the normative standards creating a change in the experience.

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  • Due to work from home, an individual has to continuously spend time on their device to accomplish the office work or assignment, attend meetings, and need to create more efforts to stay active. Building this energy to keep the momentum in the virtual space filled with distractions like low bandwidth, lagging, tech failures, etc. leads to, stress and frustrations which are due to work.

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  • Being idle, sitting at one posture constantly looking at the digital screen, one finds it difficult to concentrate and focus on work. It is also exhausting to be mentally present while collaborating where we physically aren’t.

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  • A 2014 study by German academics showed that delays on phone or conferencing systems formed our views of people negatively: mere delays of 1.2 seconds made individuals perceive the responder as less favorable or attentive.

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  • When you're on a video meeting and it is time for your talk, you know everyone's taking a look at you; you are in front of an audience, so there comes the prevalent burden and feeling like you need to perform. Being performative is nerve-wracking and more unpleasant.

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  • Texting permits individuals time to ponder their reactions, to converse with somebody without showing their face, and at last gives them the certainty they don't in any case have. While all this sounds extraordinary, texting and other PC-intertwined communication can likewise make individuals more restless. This is significant because of the numerous ways one can decipher a message. A straightforward 'How about we talk', may be literal, yet there are chances it could be deciphered contrarily, setting off episodes of tension. On contrary, if it was a face-to-face conversation, the beneficiary would have the other person's tone, looks, and non-verbal communication to perceive better. Yet, over instant messages, they're left with simply the words to dissect. Individuals are more helpless to creating uneasiness because of their continuous negative translations of instant messages. The act of composing, regardless of whether it comprises of just a hundred and forty characters made with one's thumbs, powers a sort of ongoing refining of enthusiastic turmoil. A considerable group of examination affirms the adequacy of composing as a therapeutic intervention, and in spite of the fact that typing out an instant message isn't equivalent to keeping a diary, it can go about as a behavioural shield, giving the distance between the individual and extreme, immediate and often impulsive feelings. The wait for a reply can be frustrating but liberating if one doesn't want a response.

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  • Being on a video call requires more clarity of mind than a vis-à-vis talk, says Gianpiero Petriglieri (partner educator at Instead who investigates practical learning and advancement in the working environment). Video talks mean we need to work more earnestly to handle non-verbal signs like looks, the tone and pitch of the voice, and non-verbal communication; paying more attention to these consume a lot of energy. “Our minds are together when our bodies feel we're not. That dissonance, which causes people to have conflicting feelings, is exhausting. You cannot relax into the conversation naturally,”. Silence is another challenge, he adds. “Silence creates a natural rhythm in a real-life conversation. However, when it happens in a video call, you became anxious about the technology.”

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  • Stress, commonly defined as a state of mental or emotional strain due to internal or external circumstances. There is no magic pill to erase stress. Our early education system doesn't teach individuals how to handle stress, pressure, and emotional challenges, nor can we learn such skills only by reading books. All it takes is mental training. This mental training can be achieved through meditation and sleep. Stress is not negative by default. Actually, we need positive stress(eustress) which may kick-start our adrenaline, improve our focus, our capacity to be engaged and to perform even create a state of happiness or contentment. Researches show that people who are stressed are less likely to have less healthy eating habits, they are less likely to exercise and they are more likely to smoke. Reasons for stress include Crisis in time, Mental Fear: Being in a situation for the first time, Unable to react/ being struck, Trauma, Unable to cope up with reality.

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  • We generally keep 4 to 12ft from people during socializing (with those individuals who are acquaintances) and a 1.5 to 4ft for personal distance (those individuals who are family members or close friends) and 6 to 18 inches for intimate distance (indicates a closer relationship or greater comfort between individuals.). The distance we have with our colleagues through the screen is in between intimate and personal space (minimum distance from laptop-24inches). This is not an approved space for social interactions which can cause discomfort in the individual's mental and physical well-being that takes the form of changes in body language, gestures communication style as the experience is different.

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  • There are parts of our lives that used to be independent – work, companions, family – are all presently occurring in the same space. The self-complexity theory posits that individuals have multiple aspects – context-dependent social roles, relationships, activities, and goals – and we find the variety healthy, says Gianpiero Petriglieri. When these aspects are reduced, we become more vulnerable to negative feelings. The experiences we have and associate with people and places are put in various contexts. But being confined in our own space in the context of a very anxiety-provoking crisis (the covid pandemic) and our only space for interaction is a computer window.

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  • Screen use releases dopamine in the brain, which can negatively affect impulse control. Dr. Lorenz says studies have shown screen time affects the frontal cortex of the brain, similar to the effect of
    cocaine. Like drugs, screen time sets off a delight/reward cycle that can have adverse consequences on your life. A few of the long-term effects include speech delay, cognitive impairment, sleep deprivation, depression, and anxiety.

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  • Video calls often have a lag that frustrates people when they knowingly end up talking over each other. Conversations within a physical space have a concept called gaze awareness, which subconsciously allows people to tell who is the focus of attention at any given time and who is going to speak. But on video calls, this is hard to track contributing to awkward pauses or break in the flow or momentum of a conversation.

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  • Sleep deprivation is also a major contributor to daytime fatigue, irritability, and mood changes. Simple changes to the lights around us may affect our energy levels throughout the day. The blue light from electronic devices messes with our circadian rhythm or sleep cycle. Blue wavelengths are great during daylight hours as they boost attention, reaction times, and mood but at night, It signals your brain to wake up when it should be winding down. More screen time, more eye strain, and less likely to get a good sleep.

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  • Embodiment’ incorporated many things as one; a person’s biological (somatic), intellectual, emotional, bodily, social, gendered, artistic, and spiritual experience, within their cultural and geographical location. (Weiss, 1999) The embodiment thus indicates a holistic experiencing individual. 

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  • Video calls require more concentration to understand and process social cues, facial expressions, and anybody language that a person may be able to detect. This contributes to video call fatigues. Building transition periods in between video meetings can also help refresh us.

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Case study-2

Group - Aayush and Vinay

How has human vision & behaviour of how we scan or read, adapted during remote working, and how nuanced is the future of the human eye and its behaviour going to be?

Mind and body

Until a few months back, our regular day involved traveling to work, observing people in action getting around their chores & tasks for the day, sifting through a substantial amount of paperwork in school or office, communicating with friends & family, and absorbing our surroundings in a more 360-degree manner, but since the advent of remote work, things have involuntarily changed, and so have we. Since our respective laptops, mobile and computer screens have replaced our communication space, our habits have morphed as well. From linear reading and shifting through pages by turning them, we have been limited to browsing and reading our days content from a 13" screen, with a single scroll. Due to the volume of digital content available and the humongous amount of information to peruse, we have begun choosing what to read and skimming through content (i.e. non-linear reading). We have trained our eyes such that it is enabled to detect particular keywords from scrolls of content, and it is only getting smarter. Given the above shift, in only a span of a few months or years, the question arises as to what is going to be the future of human behavior and physical adaptations, in the years to come? Will our eyes adapt to the excessive screen times and limited movement it experiences around the 13" screen? Or will our necks turn rigid from all the stagnancy and prolonged stares? What does our future hold?

Computer Vision Syndrome

According to AOA, Computer vision syndrome, also referred to as digital eye strain, describes a group of the eye- and vision-related problems that result from prolonged computer, tablet, e-reader, and cell phone use.

Symptoms

The most common symptoms of CVS:

  • Fatigue

  • Eyestrain

  • Headaches

  • Blurred Vision

  • Double Vision

  • Eye Spasm

  • Dry eyes

  • Irritation

  • Burning / Itching

  • Neck and shoulder pain

  • Chronic sleep disturbance

  • Lower mood or productivity

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Triggers:

  • Poor lighting

  • Glare on a digital screen

  • Improper viewing distances

  • Poor seating posture

  • Reduced eye blinking (Can blinks be stimulated to induce comfort?)

  • Uncorrected vision problems

  • A combination of these factors.

Looking at a computer or digital screen generally makes the eyes work harder. Therefore, the unique characteristics and high visual requirements of a computer display and digital screen make many people prone to vision-related symptoms.

Prevention

Preventing or reducing CVS-related vision problems or digital eye strain includes taking steps to control lighting and glare on the device screen, setting a proper working distance and posture for viewing the screen, and making sure that even small vision problems can be corrected properly.

Eye versus attention

Although many old and recent studies conclude that people understand what they read on paper more thoroughly than reading it in digital. With our current scenario, where our digital intake has drastically multiplied from before how will our eyes see and focuses on the content we see.

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Will we adapt and navigate our eyes and minds through all the unnecessary content like ads and clickbait and process digital content with ease or will we overload our eyes and minds and deteriorate them?
Here is a screenshot of the app visualizing where all our eyes are drawn to. We used a free eye-tracking camera to test or study on-screen viewing vs off-screen viewing.

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In this Image 1, the concentration of yellow burst is higher at the headline and the image. Our eye is focusing on these two areas and pays less attention to the body text, which means we mostly skim or ignore the body content while reading digitally.

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In this Image 2, the concentration of yellow burst is higher at the top left of the screen but spread across the left side from top to bottom.

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In this Image 3, the concentration of yellow burst is higher at the headline and the banner. Our eye is focusing on these two areas fighting for our attention which makes us less focused while reading the article.

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In this Image 4, when used the app is on the live scene with people, the focus was completely on the people, which shows us that our eye scans and focus differently in a 3-D space. Moreover, while viewing a physical subject in a physical space our viewing angle is wider, but on a digital screen it is 2-D and the viewing angle is much narrower and stuck at a specific distance, and when viewed for long, causes our eyes and mind to strain. In summary, we can see how our environment influences our habits, our habits influence us humans, and how we in return influence the environment through actions. It is this interchange in onus that we are looking to understand from the perspective of our physical self, to better the connectivity of the human body, mind, and the residing soul in the environment that embodies us.

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Closing the loop from

the two case studies

Our bodily movements organize themselves based on the normative standards of the context we are in. Our natural body movements and actions have affected our mental and physical well-being. There are inter-related. But do we judge our mental and physical well-being just based on the experiences within the screen? Are external experiences a contributing factor? How are external experiences we have, shaping us?

Ideation

Speculative Future

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We carried out a brainstorming activity to ideate on how changes to lifestyle could have an influence on bodily changes in the future.

  • There is a probability that our human cerebrum might evolve to storing less information. Over the long haul, the human mind may stop depending on our capacity to hold data (since this ability is now given to PCs, Mobiles, Cloud services, etc).

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  • There is a possibility for changes in our organs and appendages. Automation was an idea inspired by science fiction decades ago but it's no longer fiction. Technological advances are substituting our presence at a faster rate. For instance, our hands, legs, and feet might go through a gigantic change. Our ancestors utilized hands for actual work to chase for food and for building shelter. We utilized our legs and feet to move and follow our food from one landmass to another. However, presently we are utilizing these walking organs for substantially less monotonous errands. So, it is profoundly plausible that they might come changes to these organs to make them more proficient in their utilization.

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  • Will there be a future where we create our virtual selves to attend meetings during remote collaborations? Can our understanding and awareness of our embodied experiences in the world be automated?

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  • How will our bodies evolve to look like? Above is a 3-D rendered image of a human body based on assumptions.

Humans, Adaptation, Culture and Technology

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  • Reports in the media and the popular writings of academics commonly claim that evolution is no longer relevant to humans, and that, as a species, we now depend on culture and technology for survival, rather than the random mechanisms of variation and selection (Dyson, 2007; Ward, 2001).

  • The concept of culture is central to this argument. Culture is often defined as human achievements—artistic expression, science, technology, morals, and laws, for example—but it can be defined more simply as shared, learned social behaviour, or a non-biological means of adaptation that extends beyond the body (White, 1959).

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The mechanism of adaptation, in its most basic sense, allows organisms to cope with environmental stress and reproduce. We often think that adaptation is the result of direct genetic modifications caused by environmental stress. Nevertheless, adapting to environmental stress is not a problem for many animal species because they simply alter their behavior when environmental conditions change, without resorting to genetic adaptation. Possibly, this would involve Even a move to another location, a change in annual or daily activities, or a change in food procurement strategies that can result in modifications. If behavioral flexibility is unable to cope with environmental stress, A wide range of physiological mechanisms are also available to help animals respond, again without requiring genetic modification. These include adaptive changes in heart rate, respiration, and body fat accumulation. Behavior and physiological flexibility work in tandem to withstand environmental stress. Natural selection will no longer occur in our culture if we effectively remove us from environmental stress. Despite this, it is important to remember that our ability to adapt to environmental stress depends on the availability and distribution of resources and energy.

 

Humans are viewed in this aspect as a species that relies so heavily on culture and technology that cultural adaptation has replaced biological adaptation. Over the past 12,000 years, humans have increasingly used culture and technology to control and modify the environment, built on agriculture and animal domestication.  In this regard, If evolution does still influence the biology of our species, culture plays an important role in understanding it. 

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Sense, Feel, Think and Relate

As we discussed more, we asked each other how experiences we have with our environment or artifacts are creating a change in our body and mind. Remote collaboration work has become the new work style norm that we have seen over the past few years. But are the experience an individual undergoes confined to the experience within the applications or are other experiences the individual undergoes in their daily routine, choices, and actions a contributing factor. We realized we needed to understand how individuals sense, feel, think and relate to these experiences.

Each individual has their own lifestyle routine that may or may not change over time. As a group, we tried to map our daily routines and how we feel.

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We carried out an activity to understand, learn how each activity or action of our daily routines affects our mental and physical well-being based on our experiences and findings. This activity helped us to sense, feel, think and relate to the experiences.

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User research

We ideated on an interactive design probe to help us get insights into our study. After testing the design probe 1 ourselves and through suggestions we decided to iterate our method to user research. The following documents the journey.

Direction 1- Interactive design probe

What is the intent?

An interactive design probe, emerging from the dialogue of a person with their world through their choices. The interactive survey uses a “branching narrative” storytelling format. We want our video to take shape of a virtual revisit to their own daily activities and choices so as to make them, relate and recall their actions and the environment they are in. This is to provoke a sense of recollection on how they felt or sensed how their mental and physical well-being is at that same time.

Who will take part?

Remotely working adults and university students

How will it be produced?

We mapped a daily routine flow for the participant on Miro. We then sketched a storyboard for the journey and for visualizing the video shots. We prepared a guideline on how to shoot the videos. Each of the members was assigned specific videos to shoot which were edited and uploaded on Readymag. 

Moodboard

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Challenges

  • We tested the prototypes ourselves are through suggestions we came to realize that this direction might not help us reveal how users feel about their experiences as showing them virtually to relate is a barrier we might be creating for them to think. It won't be a person if the choices we show them are not what they usually do in their daily life.

  • We used 'Readymag' to host our design probe. We faced technical issues such as delay in video loading, unintentional thumbnails for videos that appeared before the video started, etc.

  • With the limited time, reiterating and reworking the approach did not seem feasible.

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Screenshots from the interactive design probe

Direction 2- User research

What are we creating?

We have designed a user research session with our target audience. The approach is changed but the intent and how the research would help our study remains the same.

What is the intent?

Increased focus on soma-aesthetic approaches in movement-based design and HCI hold promise for understanding the living body and how our experiences can be improved. For creating aesthetic experiences, we need to understand how users feel and think. This survey would give us an understanding of- if experiences around us contribute to how our mental and physical well-being is shaped and how we can design experiences that could help improve the same for remote collaborations?

Who will take part?

Remotely working adults and university students.

How will this survey help us?

This design probe may help us get more insights into the following:

  • Soma talks about perception through an active body. Will an active body extend our experiences and create richer and potentially better ways of being in the world? Do they be more productive, creative and have a positive impact on their mental well-being?

  • What are the smaller things that often go unnoticed that could bring stress to a person?

  • What are the smaller things that often go unnoticed that could bring positive mental well-being to a person?

How are we going about it?

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The user research is divided into four parts:
Part 1 - We start the session with an ice-breaking activity, designed to make the users feel at ease. We ask them a couple of introductory questions, followed by a sketching activity that asks the user to sketch their experience and mood felt while conducting various activities done during the day. It is a method to probe recollection of various actions or activities the user made during the day. Sketching, doodling, and colouring can aid in de-stressing or feeling less anxious making it easier for the user to open up, focus, be attentive for the rest of the session, feel more interactive and comfortable during the real and deep questions.

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Part 2 - We then ask questions designed to understand, how they feel while carrying our various activities throughout their daily lifestyle. This is to understand the user's experience on a deeper level so as to relate to them so as to probe further questions in part 4.

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Part 3 - The user is asked to describe their online working experience, feeling, and thoughts by sketching, doodling, or writing. The activity can help process their emotions and be freer to express their feelings through the choices of colors, negative spaces, lines, shapes, textures etc. This activity is analysed to understand the inner feelings and emotions of the user towards their experience with remote collaboration. Sometimes art speaks more than words.

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Part 4 - The next set of questions are designed to understand the user's experience and feelings associated with remote collaboration

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Brainstorming probing questions

User research session flow

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What are the session guidelines?

  • Respect the privacy of participants.

  • Begin by explaining the purpose of the interview.

  • Address the value of the data collected and how it will be used.

  • Make the participant comfortable to open up by carrying out an ‘ice breaker’ exercise.

  • To not interrupt the flow of the participants' thought process while they talk.

  • Record audio of the conversation, observe the user's body language.

  • Capture interesting quotes

How did we conduct the session?

Due to time constraints, we interviewed 7 working adults and students. We made sure to make the participant feel comfortable enough to open up for the entire session. We conducted the research by being physically being present next to them, so as to capture the emotions, body language and to listen to changes in the tone of their voices. This is done so as to probe follow-up questions that felt right at the moment to gather more insights.

Sketching activity - 1

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Artworks by participants that expresses their thoughts, feelings towards

va rious activities carried out by them in a day.

Sketching activity - 2

Artworks and writings by participants that expresses their thoughts, feelings towards remote collaboration.

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Observations 

  • Participants voiced their concern and need for breaks during remote meetings.

  • Participants feel a halt in fruitful communication and team building activities between peers.

  • Increased screen time- on and off work time. Participants are aware of the increased screen time. Working adults have more tasks to perform than students. Hence the screen time almost remains the same for working adults, whereas for students the screen time increases drastically.

  • No concern was raised regarding the application used for remote collaboration.

  • A need to make the experience more personal.

  • Participants are more conscious about their daily activities. Some participants make a ‘To-do List’ to make it more productive.

  • Participants feel more relaxed, calm while performing physical activities. This could be different on other days.

  • Two participants sketched with more white space when asked for daily activities but when asked to sketch their feeling for remote collaboration, the sketch has become cluttered with minimal whitespace. This could suggest in an increased emotion, anxiousness or stress.

  • Working adults are used to remote collaboration, whereas students are not so satisfied with it.

  • Working adults are more motivated in remote collaboration than the students.

  • A need for fixed schedule was brought up.

  • Meetings sometimes felt transactional and impersonal.

  • Taking breaks felt nice but only when the participants achieved a milestone, otherwise they felt guilty and undeserving of a break.

  • Participants didn't have any issue working on a screen for prolonged time if the work is something they like and are passionate about.

  • They feel unmotivated and find it difficult to get into the flow to work, because of distractions and easily accessible procrastination material.

  • A dislike for impromptu meetings was noticed.

  • The opportunity of meeting new people which might not have been possible physically was a motivational factor for some.

  • An interest for hybrid work style in the future.

  • The comfort of only interacting through voice and/or text was felt as an advantage and a disadvantage of remote collaboration.

  • Participants like taking breaks to look at the work problem at hand with a fresh headspace.

  • People with less screen time has more to describe and draw than the people with excessive screen time. This could indicate that excessive screen time could be limiting our ability to perform multiple tasks physically.

Insights

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  • Participants felt the need for communication and the work environment to be more personal. 'It's stressful not to know the person behind the call, but also the comfort of hiding behind the screen and being comfortable in my own space, it also feels like talking into the unknown which is a little unsettling”, said a participant. "I liked the conferences in the "Kingsman" movie, it felt more personal than seeing them within a screen. You can actually see their body language, you can see them, feel like you are being with them. Or else it’s like a robot working on stuff that is given on-screen, like human interaction becomes very data-driven to get the job done. There is no emotion, no kindness or empathy involved. It is just people interacting to get the work done", voiced another participant. How can we make remote collaboration more personal? Will VR aid in the same?

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  • "There is no difference now as we are at home, working. Now there is no margin. You are always available, your laptop is always on, you just have multiple tabs opened infront of and you just can't go out. So, there is literally no work-life balance", voiced a participant. There is no work-life balance in the current scenario due to pandemic. Work is in your home and there is no margin to separate the lives. Having office spaces separates the experience we have with work and personal life. "Work is not the only contributing factor to stress, it is people I live with, share space, if it creates an environment not good, it will trickle down to what you do.", expressed the same participant. The experiences we have with our personal life gets translated to how we are during work. How could we make the homework-style set up much better to create those needed margins or boundaries?

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  • Does a person feel mentally less stressed when they are interacting with tangible interfaces through an active body? The participants expressed stress, the requirement of constant focus, and an increase in screen time. They feel more at peace, relaxed while they performed activities that involved movement. Is it possible to rethink how remote collaborations are carried breaking away from the screen in the future?

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  • Online work or remote collaboration is not as personal as how it is now. There is no personal touch to it- as the only reason you talk to peers is for getting the work done. You are unable to read body cues as you are not sharing a physical space with them. " People have discovered the ability to work remotely in the comfort of their home, people from all walks of life have been able to come and work together, people are just beginning to explore the advantages of this and I think remote collaboration will go on, although impersonal we're getting to know people that we wouldn't have if it wasn't for remote collaboration", said a participant. “Offline mode could change to complete online. Maybe there could be a bigger suspended screen mid air without limitations enabling us to see each other better and more real”, voiced another participant. Is it just opinions or feelings that some people have or are the experiences people have with remote collaboration less personal?

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  • How much does communication through word-of-mouth help in destressing individuals? We are social beings and we like to connect. Connecting with peers will help us understand them better. But how far are connections through communications using teams or Miro or Zoom or other applications hindering the same? “Nobody is interested to sit again Infront of laptop for an informal session. They just want to get away from the laptop after work and do whatever they like. But if we were at an office space, then people would be more open to hanging out even meeting up on weekends. There could have been a possibility to build a friendship with colleagues.”, voiced a participant. Peers don't wish for or desire off-work connections after a long day of work through virtual mediums again. How is it hindering their chances to foster relationships through communications? Is it because they want to break screen time after work? Is remote work setup shaping our behaviour and need to not stay longer to foster relationships virtually which would have been done at a physical space?​

Challenges

  • Due to constraints in time, we were unable to analyse the responses much deeper.

  • We realized how conducting user research with seven participants will not give us a wider understanding of our study. We need to do the same with more participants to get more insights.

  • Ideating on questions that could probe more insights from the participant. To design them in a way to make the participant express feelings towards their experience.

  • Since the user research was done on a weekend, the usual workday and time of waking up also varied, leading to a bias in the collected data.

What next?

  • The user research needs to be carried out using more participants.

  • The artworks could be interpreted in different ways. An activity could be carried out by sharing the images with art students so as to see and understand through various perspectives and lenses.

  • Design more probing follow-up questions.

  • The activity could be conducted on a weekday to see if there are changes to how experiences are shaped for the participants.

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Personal Meta-reflection

Pausing to sense things that I tend to miss out became the first grip that I got to understand and perceive experiences that I have with my environment. This practice was put to shape through the Somascapes lab space where we were given an activity; “Pausing to sense’ in which we documented our body sensations to the experiences around us. Somaesthetics is how our body becomes a medium for sensory perceptions and learning that can help in understanding how it can be used. During the undertaken stages of sketching and reflecting to the perceived sensations, I became more attentive to the happenings around me, which I normally tore my attention away from.

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This could be why Sebastian Vettel, A formula one speed racer commented, ‘Sometimes you need to press pause to let everything sink in’. The rise in technological advancements and our fast-paced lives, we often forget to take pauses in our lives to observe, sense to experiences we have around us. Through the study I learned how technology and its experiences are growing and reaching us rapidly, that they are starting to shape our cultural expressions and furthermore shape us. They try to make the experiences closer to reality or tries to create an unrealistic experience. Either way, they have the hold to shape our behaviour and bodily movements. I began to understand that through understanding my own bodily movements in the living active world and realizing how external stimuli could change the same, I started to observe my experiences with the external world more.

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My experiences with remote collaboration felt like struggle. The increased screen time took a toll on my constant headaches, and shoulder pain.I vented my angst on the experiences I had with the applications I used and my laptop. Yes, the screens are a barrier and it did shape my bodily movements and behaviour which I started realizing during Somascape lab space. Through the group research we learnt how experience within screen and our experiences with daily activities can create changes to our bodily movements and can shape our mental and physical well-being. This made so much sense to how experiences shape our behaviours and bodily movements. The learnings  taught me to slow down. It taught me to make room for what's really important, taking better care of my mental and physical well-being. I started taking more breaks and made sure to walk more often than sitting on the chair for longer period of time. I felt a change in my headspace and became more productive throughout the month. I understood how I shouldn’t totally blame the experiences I have with digital technology. I should keep in mind it has the power to shape our behaviour and bodily movements but I too can make room to change and shape the experiences I have with remote collaboration.

Reference

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