Co-Space
User-centred design | Product design | Research
Individual Project (Jul. 2025 - Oct. 2025)
A digital plugin and a physical product developed to support seamless collaboration across various spatial contexts by bringing the senses of proxemics to the virtual workspace.
If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.
African Proverb
Background Research
Based on the research, I find that spatial differences in collaboration modes have a significant influence on the collaborative process and outcome. Therefore, I want to explore:
Research Question
How do spatial configurations, such as interpersonal distances, resulting from shifts between physical and digital environments, mediate non-verbal interaction dynamics and collaborative behaviours between users?
Project Aim
This project seeks to identify and analyse the proxemic factors that critically shape social interaction and collaboration. By examining how spatial variations influence gesture, posture, and embodied cues in co-located and mediated settings, the research aims to inform the design of physical, online, and hybrid collaboration platforms that better support intuitive and effective interaction.
Definition
The study of how distance, gesture, and orientation mediate cooperation. I am interested in how these cues continue to matter within digital and virtual collaboration today.
Coined by Edward T. Hall in 1963
Kinesics is the interpretation of body communication, such as facial expressions and gestures. Essentially, proxemics examines the “how close” aspect of interaction, while kinesics analyses the “how we move” aspect.
Coined by Ray Birdwhistell in 1952
Design References
Current studies have shown that the perception of space and body movement in both face-to-face and digital contexts significantly influences the effectiveness and experience of collaboration. Compared to physical settings, digital or virtual environments often lack spatial cues, which can disadvantage collaborative interactions. However, there is still limited research on whether introducing spatial qualities into virtual or digital platforms could enhance collaboration.
Experiment Ideas
I aim to conduct an experiment to test the validity of the following ideas.
Spatial Voice
Gesture Icon
Speaking Signal
Experiment Plan - To Test the Validity of the 3 Ideas
Aim
This experiment investigates how different spatial settings (face-to-face, digital, and hybrid) and spatial factors (such as recognition of in-between distance) influence collaboration. I designed 15 trials across these settings, with and without spatial augmentation, using face-to-face collaboration without augmentation as the baseline.
Task
3 strangers: A, B, C, of the same age and cultural background, were invited and paired up.
Participants each have 20 pieces of puzzle, both physically and digitally, and work together to build a perfectly symmetrical pattern using all of the puzzles in 8 minutes.
For the online and hybrid settings, I will compare the results from using spatial augmentation with those from not using it. The face-to-face setting will serve as part of the baseline.
Variables: Spatial Augmentation on a coded website
Screenshot of the online platform:
(coded with HTML)
Experiment Process
Two participants are using the online platform in two separate rooms
Working with physical puzzles and a board
Physical puzzle + Webcam + Digital Platform
Experiment Insights
Without augmentation, face-to-face interaction remained the most effective mode.
With the three augmentations, effectiveness increased noticeably. Spatial voice in particular influenced team strategy and guided participants’ behaviour and focus.
New Opportunities
- Placing spatial augmentation that mimics a face-to-face situation into digital and hybrid contexts has been shown to increase collaborative effectiveness.
- There are currently no effective design solutions for hybrid contexts, and most of the interviewees indicated a clear need for one.
- Although there are VR meeting applications available, they are rather inaccessible and require expensive equipment and prior knowledge.
Online: Workflow
Aim: Targeting users working online, the system will bring spatial functions to enhance the collaboration efficiency and accuracy.
Online
Creation Mode
Presentation Mode
In this mode, each user is placed around a virtual table. A window shows who is speaking and who will speak next. When a user starts talking, the signal lights up, and after 0.5 seconds, the voice is transmitted as a subtle pre-hint. The volume changes according to each user’s seat position.
Hybrid
WorkflowAim: Targeting users working with physical setup, the system will bridge the digital and physical spaces through spatial functions to enhance the collaboration efficiency and accuracy.
Hand Tracking
Hybrid: Product Design
Hybrid: Final Outcome
Demo
Reflection
This project is grounded in research and proposes both a physical and a digital tool. While the prototype is not yet fully fabricated, I plan to develop it further through user testing to better understand its potential in real contexts.
Moving forward, I am also interested in exploring how tactile (material, temperature) or olfactory qualities could also influence perception in spaces and, therefore, engage in collaboration.
Citation
Gong, J., Sun, J., Chu, M., Chen, H., Xu, X., Chen, J., Chen, S., Chen, W. and Liang, H.-N. (2023) 'Side-by-Side vs Face-to-Face: Evaluating Colocated Collaboration via a Transparent Wall-sized Display', Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 7, pp. 1-29. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1145/3579623
Lan, C.-H., Sheng, M.-H., Hsu, Y.-C. and Shiue, Y.-M. (2019) 'Influence of Online and Face-to-face Collaboration and Learning Style on Cognitive Load and Engagement in a Health Introductory Course', Journal of Healthcare Engineering, 2019, p. 8532905. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/8532905
Mattessich, P.W. and Johnson, K.M., 2018. Collaboration: What makes it work. 3rd ed. Saint Paul, MN: Wilder Foundation.
Williamson, J.R., Li, J., Vinayagamoorthy, V., Shamma, D.A. and Cesar, P. (2021) 'Proxemics and Social Interactions in an Instrumented Virtual Reality Workshop', Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '21). Yokohama, Japan, 08-12 May. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, p. 253. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445729