The Intentional Meetings workstream in the Tools for Thought project at Microsoft Research Cambridge UK conducts rigorous research into how intentional workflow behaviors intersect with technology interactions. Currently focusing on meetings, our objective is to help organizations develop a goal-oriented meeting lifecycle that leverages Generative AI to construct dynamic goal-driven interfaces that adapt to organizational and team tasks and contexts. This will make current workflows more effective and evolve organizational cultures of intention and future preparedness.
We explore intentionality through behavioral research
This journey involves delving into the intricacies of the purpose of workflows. We currently focus on meeting scenarios as our area of expertise, but we expect this to widen out to wider asynchronous and synchronous collaboration scenarios. Using survey data, telemetry, interviews, and interventions, we are unveiling fundamental principles that can steer the development of prototypes and product features. Here are some areas that we have explored or are currently exploring:
- Effects of Generative AI on Knowledge Work (New area under development)
- Generative AI and Metacognition: The Metacognitive Demands and Opportunities of Generative AI [NEW!]
- Generative AI and the Automation of Knowledge Work: Coming soon
- Generative AI in Education: We contributed slide 9 to AI in Education: A Microsoft Special Report (opens in new tab) (Full site: Reimagine Education 2024: Prepare for the future with new AI and security offers | Microsoft EDU (opens in new tab))
- Behaviors with respect to meeting affordances
- Meeting chat. The Promise and Peril of Parallel Chat in Video Meetings for Work
- Spatial audio: Hear We Are: Spatial Audio Benefits Perceptions of Turn-Taking and Social Presence in Video Meetings
- Avatars in augmented reality meetings: Nice is Different than Good: Longitudinal Communicative Effects of Realistic and Cartoon Avatars in Real Mixed Reality Work Meetings
- Avatars and facial noise evaluation: Ecological Validity and the Evaluation of Avatar Facial Animation Noise [NEW!]
- Fundamental meeting behaviors
- Meeting Goals: Mental Models of Meeting Goals: Supporting Intentionality in Meeting Technologies [NEW!]
- Multitasking in meetings: Large Scale Analysis of Multitasking Behavior During Remote Meetings
- Attention in meetings. Classification of Functional Attention in Video Meetings | Low Engagement As a Deliberate Practice of Remote Participants in Video Meetings
- Meetings during COVID-19. Meeting (the) Pandemic: Videoconferencing Fatigue and Evolving Tensions of Sociality in Enterprise Video Meetings During COVID-19 | Collaboration and Meetings – Chapter 1 of the 2021 New Future of Work report | Bridging social distance during social distancing: Exploring social talk and remote collegiality in video conferencing
- Hybrid meetings: (Re)Configuring Hybrid Meetings: Moving from User-Centered Design to Meeting-Centered Design | Hybrid Meetings in the Modern Workplace: Stories of Success and Failure
- Speech overlap in meetings: Automated mapping of competitive and collaborative overlapping talk in video meetings
We explore interactions through prototype-based research
Our prototyping process is an exploration of principles that connect people in ways that align with their goals, team context, and endpoint technology. We are on a mission to develop solutions that share common principles, infrastructure, and features across various modes of encounters. These solutions are not a one-size-fits-all but are executed in unique combinations tailored to specific needs.
- Generative AI meeting prototype: CoExplorer: Generative AI Powered 2D and 3D Adaptive Interfaces to Support Intentionality in Video Meetings – Microsoft Research
- Asymmetrical hybrid meeting prototype: Comparing the Agency of Hybrid Meeting Remote Users in 2D and 3D Interfaces of the Hybridge System – Microsoft Research
- 3D video of people in a 3D virtual room prototype: An Equal Seat at the Table: Exploring Videoconferencing with Shared Spatial Context combined with 3D Video Representations – Microsoft Research
- Symmetrical meeting prototype that enables all users to see everyone around the table with video but in a virtual room from your natural first person view: Perspectives: Creating Inclusive and Equitable Hybrid Meeting Experiences
- Semantic Devices: Beyond Audio: Towards a Design Space of Headphones as a Site for Interaction and Sensing
- Meeting Conversational Transitions prototype: Making Space for Social Time: Supporting Conversational Transitions Before, During, and After Video Meetings
- Post-meeting dashboard prototype for effective and inclusive meetings. MeetingCoach: An Intelligent Dashboard for Supporting Effective and Inclusive Meetings
- VROOM prototype: Belonging There: VROOM-ing into the Uncanny Valley of XR Telepresence
- Robotic Telepresence: “There is a bit of grace missing”: Understanding non-use of mobile robotic telepresence in a global technology company | “I can’t get round”: Recruiting Assistance in Mobile Robotic Telepresence