[GekkePrutser]

I think the paradigm of floating windows could be liberating. Right now we're tied to physical screens and their positioning. I think you shouldn't view working in VR within the constraints of the existing paradigms like a 'desktop'. That concept doesn't really work in VR. I see much more in free-floating windows, probably with different depths as well.

After all the 'desktop' itself was a transitional paradigm for the office workers that came before the age of the computer. It simulates a messy desk. We're taking yet another step away from this and it doesn't make sense to hold on to these concepts.

I think if we liberate ourselves from these artifical constraints and go back to the drawing board, we could come up with something great. I was thinking about a virtual brainstorming room where you could hang up scraps and connect them. A bit like the serial killers do in movies :D But without the killing though ;)

I've also done detailed trials with VR meeting software for work and I have to say, they're on to something. It feels way more like actually meeting people than it does staring at a bunch of choppy videos in Teams.

And I was always a fan of skeuomorphism by the way... I think computers have become really boring with the flat design phase. Even though I agree it holds us back, there were ways in which it would really shine. Like turning a page in iBooks. It was beautiful and intuitive. When done in a minimalistic way it can work well. It's just when it becomes overblown (like iOS Notes and Game Center) that it becomes a burden.

[XorNot]

Yeah, the real magic is being able to bring a lot of the conventions of my actual desk into the virtual world in a more useful form.

The idea of a whiteboard can go away and be replaced with a 3D structure I can walk/zoom through - which for complicated systems design is actually a much better solution anyway (short version: you basically never need to have linking lines overlapping or colliding).

My desk can then basically go away - all I need is a chair with a keyboard support so I can spin around, and that means I don't need to dedicate a wall to "office space" at all.

Dashboards, alerts, "control centers" - all these things can be implemented in optimally efficient ways in a virtual office, shared amongst team mates, overlaid or augmented in different ways.

[mdp2021]

If the display is a "limited window" in your field of vision, instead of a surrounding environment like the natural one, the abstract idea of a virtual/abstract in-space office environment will probably not really work.

[GekkePrutser]

But why does the "office room" analogue even have to be there? It'll be nice to get people in on the idea just like the windows desktop was for traditional office workers. But we don't have to sit in a "room" in VR. The sky is the limit! :)

[mdp2021]

What I meant is that a narrow field of vision may make interfaces built on an idea of immersion not fully effective.

[GekkePrutser]

Ahh ok. Understood, but our peripheral vision is awful in terms of resolution anyway. And working with your eyes to the side is annoying, so we tend to turn our heads anyway.

Probably a bit more than we would in real life, due to the narrow FOV I agree.. But I think this will be resolved in newer-gen headsets. It looks like Pimax has already got this covered technically. Though I've never tried them, I wonder how well it works.