FW-HTF-R: Collaborative Research: Virtual Meeting Support for Enhanced Well-Being and Equity for Game Developers

新冠肺炎大流行开启了远程工作的新时代，突显了福祉、公平和包容的障碍。虚拟会议疲劳是在长时间视频会议后出现的疲惫，已被确定为对女性和有色人种特别有害，加剧了常见的面对面不平等，如交谈时间不平等和会议被打断。为了开发更具包容性和更公平的远程工作空间，这项研究提出的问题是：未来的虚拟会议平台如何更好地支持福祉和社会公平？为了解决这个问题，该项目专注于一个独特的合适群体：视频游戏开发人员，他们严重依赖于拥有不同专业知识(即设计、编程和艺术)的团队中的虚拟会议，代表着大约1600亿美元的行业(国内超过400亿美元)，并努力解决工作场所的社会公平问题。跨学科研究正在利用这些工作人员的见解来确定不同团队之间虚拟会议的一般最佳实践，以最大限度地减少疲劳，提高幸福感、公平性和包容性。该项目使用混合方法来确定和测试影响用户福利的虚拟会议平台功能。研究1利用社交媒体的自然语言处理来发展对虚拟会议要素如何与幸福和社会公平相关的广泛的、归纳的理解。研究2利用对远程工作人员的调查，探索性地分析虚拟会议功能如何在统计上与用户福利相关。研究3使用有针对性的访谈，定性地解释了在视频游戏开发人员的背景下关于虚拟会议的更广泛的见解。研究4使用一个在线实验来测试关于哪些特定的虚拟会议功能可以提高视频游戏开发人员福利的假设。研究5原型和用户测试一个虚拟现实会议平台与游戏开发团队，以确认哪些设计特点促进福祉和社会公平。基于这些研究的真知灼见，一份公开的《虚拟会议福利和公平指南》正在开发之中。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a new era of remote work, highlighting barriers to well-being, equity, and inclusion. Virtual meeting fatigue, the exhaustion that occurs after long periods of videoconferencing, has been identified as especially harmful to women and people of color, compounding common face-to-face inequities like unequal talking time and interruptions in meetings. To develop more inclusive and equitable remote workspaces, this research asks: How can future virtual meeting platforms better support well-being and social equity? To address this question, the project focuses on a uniquely appropriate group: video game developers, who rely heavily on virtual meetings within teams with varied expertise (i.e., design, programming, and art), represent an estimated $160 billion industry (over $40 billion domestic), and grapple with issues of social equity in the workplace. The interdisciplinary research is using insights from these workers to identify general best practices for virtual meetings among diverse teams to minimize fatigue and improve well-being, equity, and inclusion. The project uses a mixed-methodological approach to pinpoint and test virtual meeting-platform features that influence user welfare. Study 1 utilizes natural language processing of social media to develop a broad, inductive understanding of how virtual meeting elements relate to well-being and social equity. Study 2 utilizes a survey of remote workers in an exploratory analysis of how virtual meeting features statistically relate to user welfare. Study 3 uses targeted interviews to qualitatively interpret broader insights about virtual meetings within the context of video game developers. Study 4 uses an online experiment to test hypotheses about which specific virtual meeting features enhance video game-developer welfare. Study 5 prototypes and user tests a virtual reality meeting platform with game development teams to confirm which design features promote well-being and social equity. A public “Guide to Virtual Meetings for Well-Being and Equity” is being developed based on insights from these studies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.