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 "name": "Making Space for Social Time: Supporting Conversational Transitions Before, During, and After Video Meetings",
 "author": [
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Carlos Gonzalez Diaz"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "John Tang"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Advait Sarkar"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "@id": "https://seanrintel.com/#sean-rintel",
   "name": "Sean Rintel",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/",
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    "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/serintel/",
    "https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanrintel"
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 ],
 "datePublished": "2022-06",
 "doi": "10.1145/3533406.3533417",
 "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/making-space-for-social-time-supporting-conversational-transitions-before-during-and-after-video-meetings.html",
 "citation": "Carlos Gonzalez Diaz, John Tang, Advait Sarkar, and Sean Rintel. 2022. Making Space for Social Time: Supporting Conversational Transitions Before, During, and After Video Meetings. CHIWORK 2022. https://doi.org/10.1145/3533406.3533417",
 "bibtex": "@inproceedings{diaz2022making,\nauthor = {Diaz, Carlos Gonzalez and Tang, John and Sarkar, Advait and Rintel, Sean},\ntitle = {Making Space for Social Time: Supporting Conversational Transitions Before, During, and After Video Meetings},\norganization = {ACM},\nbooktitle = {CHIWORK 2022},\nyear = {2022},\nmonth = {June},\nurl = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3533406.3533417},\ndoi = {10.1145/3533406.3533417},\n}",
 "abstract": "Unlike meetings in person, it is a well known but still unsolved problem that in traditional videoconferencing people just appear and disappear  [56]. The lack of Conversational Transitions (CTs) is unnatural and also limits the both ritualistic and spontaneous small talk of collegiality and productivity that happen in transitional moments. We report a design investigation of the pros and cons of a CT-Space UI that that intertwines spatial and temporal metaphors to support a range of conversational transitions before, during, and after meetings, but, crucially, might also fit into standard periodic workplace practices rather than require all-day connection. We explore the comprehensibility of visual transitions in space, how spatial audio supports transitions, blending spatial and temporal metaphors, and fluid and visible group clustering. We argue that CTs should be a standard requirement for videoconferencing services.",
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 "fullTextAvailable": true,
 "takeaway": "Video meetings can support Conversational Transitions (the arriving, small talk and leave-taking of in-person meetings) by adding a social space for minutes before and after. There people drift between groups as video bubbles, heard louder up close. Entering the meeting confused early users, likely because the two spaces differed starkly.",
 "whyItMatters": {
  "stateOfTheArt": {
   "summary": "In traditional videoconferencing people appear and disappear abruptly, with no time for approaching, leave-taking or small talk. Spatial systems such as Gather emulate physical space but assume persistent, all-day use.",
   "quote": "Traditional videoconferencing applications start and stop participants' presence in meetings abruptly.",
   "location": "§1, p. 1"
  },
  "contribution": {
   "summary": "Rather than a persistent virtual world used all day, the authors fit conversational transitions into an ordinary scheduled meeting by blending a spatial metaphor with a temporal one, and report design implications from informal testing.",
   "quote": "In that sense, we wanted to make space for social time by making time for a social space.",
   "location": "§3, p. 3"
  },
  "whoCares": {
   "summary": "Designers of videoconferencing services, and meeting organisers who schedule time for pre- and post-meeting talk.",
   "quote": "we hold the strong belief that the benefits of CTs should make them a first-class requirement for videoconferencing software",
   "location": "§6, p. 9"
  }
 },
 "researchQuestions": [
  "How comprehensible is a model that combines time and space so that conversational transitions before, during and after meetings can be experienced, and their benefits obtained?",
  "How do visual self-explanation of transitions, spatial audio, blended spatial and temporal metaphors, and fluid and visible group clustering support these transitions?"
 ],
 "concepts": [
  {
   "term": "Conversational Transitions (CTs)",
   "definition": "The authors' umbrella term for moving into and out of interaction, from approaching and leave-taking to moving into and out of official meeting talk. At the granular level:",
   "quote": "At the granular level this involves comfortable management of the transition from non-interaction to full interaction, and back",
   "location": "§2, p. 2"
  },
  {
   "term": "Phatic communion",
   "definition": "A term from prior work for talk that creates solidarity. The authors treat it as the basis of conversational transitions.",
   "quote": "Phatic communion happens at work just as much as it happens outside - it is the basis of workplace collegiality throughout the day",
   "location": "§2, p. 2"
  },
  {
   "term": "Wandering space",
   "definition": "An abstract area outside the official meeting where people move their video bubbles and cluster freely.",
   "quote": "more notional' wandering spaces' with abstracted user representations that promote dynamic clustering of participants",
   "location": "§3, p. 3"
  },
  {
   "term": "Social Bubble",
   "definition": "What forms when two or more participants move their video bubbles close together. Inside it they hear each other at full volume.",
   "quote": "Social Bubbles are the semiprivate space in which two or more participants can have pre- or post- meeting talk.",
   "location": "§4.3, p. 5"
  }
 ],
 "method": {
  "design": "Design investigation: collaborative sketching, then iterative building and informal testing of a prototype.",
  "prototype": "A video meeting space built in the Unity game engine on an early version of Microsoft Mesh, with spatial audio from the Microsoft Spatializer. It opens 5 minutes before the scheduled meeting and stays open 5 minutes after it. Each person appears as a circular video bubble on an abstract 'wandering space' and drags it with the mouse. When two bubbles come close, a social bubble forms around them. A tone and a zoom animation mark joining or leaving, and those inside hear each other at full volume while others hear only quieter background chatter. Shortly before the official start an announcement appears and an auditorium graphic at the bottom of the screen lights up. Moving into its seats scrolls the view so the auditorium fills most of the screen, with the wandering space still visible above. People can leave and rejoin the official meeting at any time. Not compared with another system.",
  "prototypeFigure": 1,
  "setting": "Remote informal sessions in which a moderator asked testers to move between pre-meeting, meeting and post-meeting time every 3-5 minutes. Testers were not told how the prototype worked.",
  "sample": "Weekly internal tests among the co-authors, then two 30 minute informal tests with 8 and 5 participants from the authors' lab (13 in total).",
  "n": 13,
  "duration": "About four weeks of weekly design meetings, then six weeks of weekly one-hour internal tests.",
  "analysis": "Observations and notes from the informal sessions, synthesised into preliminary design implications."
 },
 "findings": [
  {
   "headline": "Mingling was quick and fun.",
   "summary": "Lab colleagues testing the prototype, with no explanation of how it worked, enjoyed dragging their video bubbles to join and leave small groups before and after the meeting. It took very little learning.",
   "quote": "the prototype taught us that users enjoyed quickly moving around to join and leave bubbles during pre- and post- meeting periods",
   "location": "§5.1, p. 7",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/making-space-for-social-time-supporting-conversational-transitions-before-during-and-after-video-meetings.html#at-s5-1-p-7",
   "cite": "Carlos Gonzalez Diaz, John Tang, Advait Sarkar, and Sean Rintel. 2022. Making Space for Social Time: Supporting Conversational Transitions Before, During, and After Video Meetings. CHIWORK 2022. https://doi.org/10.1145/3533406.3533417 (§5.1, p. 7)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Huddles during the meeting.",
   "summary": "Testers also stepped out of the official meeting to talk and back in, trusting it to carry on without them, while others could see them come and go. This suggested such a space could make breakout rooms less abrupt.",
   "quote": "The sense of a persistent meeting instead of a persistent world is strong plus for the prototype, as it forms the basis for an understanding of CT fluidity.",
   "location": "§5.1, p. 7",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/making-space-for-social-time-supporting-conversational-transitions-before-during-and-after-video-meetings.html#at-s5-1-p-7-2",
   "cite": "Carlos Gonzalez Diaz, John Tang, Advait Sarkar, and Sean Rintel. 2022. Making Space for Social Time: Supporting Conversational Transitions Before, During, and After Video Meetings. CHIWORK 2022. https://doi.org/10.1145/3533406.3533417 (§5.1, p. 7)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Entering the meeting was not obvious.",
   "summary": "The step from informal mingling into the official meeting was not self-explanatory. Despite an announcement and the auditorium lighting up, the authors had to explain repeatedly that testers should move into it.",
   "quote": "Indeed, it was seen as a spatial obstacle to go around rather than something into which they could go.",
   "location": "§5.2, p. 8",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/making-space-for-social-time-supporting-conversational-transitions-before-during-and-after-video-meetings.html#at-s5-2-p-8",
   "cite": "Carlos Gonzalez Diaz, John Tang, Advait Sarkar, and Sean Rintel. 2022. Making Space for Social Time: Supporting Conversational Transitions Before, During, and After Video Meetings. CHIWORK 2022. https://doi.org/10.1145/3533406.3533417 (§5.2, p. 8)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "People expected an all-day world.",
   "summary": "Although told to imagine a meeting scheduled like any other, most testers assumed the space would be a persistent replacement for meetings, not something joined several times a day.",
   "quote": "In some ways, a denotative naturalistic spatial metaphor such as the video game environment of Gather, since it is so different to standard video meetings, helps re-set assumptions.",
   "location": "§5.1, p. 8",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/making-space-for-social-time-supporting-conversational-transitions-before-during-and-after-video-meetings.html#at-s5-1-p-8",
   "cite": "Carlos Gonzalez Diaz, John Tang, Advait Sarkar, and Sean Rintel. 2022. Making Space for Social Time: Supporting Conversational Transitions Before, During, and After Video Meetings. CHIWORK 2022. https://doi.org/10.1145/3533406.3533417 (§5.1, p. 8)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Simple spatial audio seemed sufficient.",
   "summary": "Voices grew quieter with distance in the wandering space, while in the auditorium everyone heard each other at full volume. No tester complained about being heard or not heard there. But sound and visuals reinforced each other, so the audio's own effect is hard to separate.",
   "quote": "Of course, this does not prevent problems such as audience members interrupting speakers, but our system has at least the promise that social protocols from the in-person world experiences of meetings may be plausible in video meetings.",
   "location": "§5.2, p. 8",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/making-space-for-social-time-supporting-conversational-transitions-before-during-and-after-video-meetings.html#at-s5-2-p-8-2",
   "cite": "Carlos Gonzalez Diaz, John Tang, Advait Sarkar, and Sean Rintel. 2022. Making Space for Social Time: Supporting Conversational Transitions Before, During, and After Video Meetings. CHIWORK 2022. https://doi.org/10.1145/3533406.3533417 (§5.2, p. 8)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Abstract bubbles beat the illustrated room.",
   "summary": "Moving between abstract social bubbles was understood better than moving into the illustrated meeting auditorium, although the authors had expected the concrete auditorium picture to be the clearer of the two.",
   "quote": "Clearly, though, visuality, even when abstract, is an anchor for understanding.",
   "location": "§5.2, p. 9",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/making-space-for-social-time-supporting-conversational-transitions-before-during-and-after-video-meetings.html#at-s5-2-p-9",
   "cite": "Carlos Gonzalez Diaz, John Tang, Advait Sarkar, and Sean Rintel. 2022. Making Space for Social Time: Supporting Conversational Transitions Before, During, and After Video Meetings. CHIWORK 2022. https://doi.org/10.1145/3533406.3533417 (§5.2, p. 9)"
  }
 ],
 "questions": [
  {
   "question": "Do video meetings need a persistent virtual world for small talk?",
   "answer": "Not necessarily. A prototype attached a mingling space to an ordinary scheduled meeting, and people who tried it enjoyed it. Yet they expected a persistent world, which demands constant attention to an avatar and only pays off if everyone you work with uses the same system.",
   "source": "Carlos Gonzalez Diaz, John Tang, Advait Sarkar, and Sean Rintel. 2022. Making Space for Social Time: Supporting Conversational Transitions Before, During, and After Video Meetings. CHIWORK 2022. https://doi.org/10.1145/3533406.3533417",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§5.1, p. 7",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/making-space-for-social-time-supporting-conversational-transitions-before-during-and-after-video-meetings.html#at-s5-1-p-7"
    },
    {
     "location": "§5.1, p. 8",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/making-space-for-social-time-supporting-conversational-transitions-before-during-and-after-video-meetings.html#at-s5-1-p-8"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "question": "Should virtual meeting spaces look like real rooms?",
   "answer": "Not necessarily. Abstract designs, such as video bubbles dragged together to form groups, were easy to learn, and even abstract visuals anchor understanding. Confusion seemed to come from the stark contrast between an abstract area and an illustrated room, though the informal testing setup may also have played a part.",
   "source": "Carlos Gonzalez Diaz, John Tang, Advait Sarkar, and Sean Rintel. 2022. Making Space for Social Time: Supporting Conversational Transitions Before, During, and After Video Meetings. CHIWORK 2022. https://doi.org/10.1145/3533406.3533417",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§5.2, p. 8",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/making-space-for-social-time-supporting-conversational-transitions-before-during-and-after-video-meetings.html#at-s5-2-p-8"
    },
    {
     "location": "§5.2, p. 9",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/making-space-for-social-time-supporting-conversational-transitions-before-during-and-after-video-meetings.html#at-s5-2-p-9"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "question": "How realistic does audio in a virtual meeting space need to be?",
   "answer": "Less than you might think. Simple distance attenuation (voices fading as people move apart) was a low-cost way to show who is near whom and to keep small-group talk semi-private. It worked partly because the visuals matched, and it does not make the space accessible to blind and low-vision users.",
   "source": "Carlos Gonzalez Diaz, John Tang, Advait Sarkar, and Sean Rintel. 2022. Making Space for Social Time: Supporting Conversational Transitions Before, During, and After Video Meetings. CHIWORK 2022. https://doi.org/10.1145/3533406.3533417",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§5.2, p. 8",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/making-space-for-social-time-supporting-conversational-transitions-before-during-and-after-video-meetings.html#at-s5-2-p-8-2"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "question": "Can breakout rooms be less abrupt?",
   "answer": "Possibly. When the official meeting stayed on screen and anyone could visibly step out to talk and step back in, people huddled freely. Such fluid, observable clustering could make breakout rooms less abrupt.",
   "source": "Carlos Gonzalez Diaz, John Tang, Advait Sarkar, and Sean Rintel. 2022. Making Space for Social Time: Supporting Conversational Transitions Before, During, and After Video Meetings. CHIWORK 2022. https://doi.org/10.1145/3533406.3533417",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§5.1, p. 7",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/making-space-for-social-time-supporting-conversational-transitions-before-during-and-after-video-meetings.html#at-s5-1-p-7-2"
    }
   ]
  }
 ],
 "cites": [
  {
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/methodology-and-participation-for-2020-diary-study-of-microsoft-employees-experiences-in-remote-meetings-during-covid-19.html",
   "title": "Methodology and Participation for 2020 Diary Study of Microsoft Employees Experiences in Remote Meetings During COVID-19",
   "location": "p. 10"
  },
  {
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/the-new-future-of-work-research-from-microsoft-into-the-pandemics-impact-on-work-practices.html",
   "title": "The New Future of Work: Research from Microsoft into the Pandemic’s Impact on Work Practices",
   "location": "p. 11"
  }
 ],
 "quantitative": [],
 "implications": [
  {
   "summary": "Visual animation of transitions can help users discover the social dynamics, but very stark differences between areas hinder understanding. The right design lies between abstract and fully denotative.",
   "quote": "Clearly, the answer lies between our version and something more denotative.",
   "location": "§5.2, p. 8"
  },
  {
   "summary": "Abstract spatial metaphors can support transitions without representing real spaces, and abstraction helps scalability and saves computing energy.",
   "quote": "Crucially, abstraction enables scalability, both in terms of the number of users who can be served and savings in computational energy.",
   "location": "§5.2, p. 9"
  },
  {
   "summary": "Build pre-meeting time into a meeting's original duration rather than adding to it.",
   "quote": "the usage of a pre-meeting feature should be intentionally built into the original intended duration of the meeting",
   "location": "§5.3, p. 9"
  },
  {
   "summary": "Conversational transitions should be a standard requirement for videoconferencing services."
  }
 ],
 "limitations": [
  {
   "summary": "Findings come from the authors' own use and informal internal tests with 13 participants, not a rigorous user evaluation.",
   "quote": "This was not a rigorous userevaluation",
   "location": "§5.4, p. 9"
  },
  {
   "summary": "Testing did not use a real scheduled meeting link or a real presentation, and the prototype lacked a notification when the first person joins."
  },
  {
   "summary": "The early Microsoft Mesh version did not let users see their own video feed, so a camera icon was shown instead."
  },
  {
   "summary": "Like most spatial worlds, the system needs considerable work to be accessible to blind and low-vision users."
  }
 ],
 "figures": [
  {
   "src": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/figures/making-space-for-social-time-supporting-conversational-transitions-before-during-and-after-video-meetings/fig-1.webp",
   "caption": "Figure 1: An idealized pre-meeting flow in a Conversational Transition prototype. Seeing that others are informally gathering before the official meeting time (far left), the user expands the wandering space (middle left) and joins two others in a bubble for some pre-meeting small talk. Then seeing the notification that the official meeting will soon begin (middle right), all users move into the auditorium (far right).",
   "alt": "Four screens: a small desktop notice that others are gathering, and a dark 'wandering space' with circular bubbles of participants. A notice that the meeting begins in 1 minute. Participants seated in an auditorium.",
   "location": "Figure 1, p. 1",
   "credit": "Figure 1 from Carlos Gonzalez Diaz, John Tang, Advait Sarkar, and Sean Rintel. 2022. Making Space for Social Time: Supporting Conversational Transitions Before, During, and After Video Meetings. CHIWORK 2022. https://doi.org/10.1145/3533406.3533417"
  },
  {
   "src": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/figures/making-space-for-social-time-supporting-conversational-transitions-before-during-and-after-video-meetings/fig-4.webp",
   "caption": "Figure 4: Pre-meeting into meeting transition animations: (a)-(b) announcement and auditorium lights up, (c)-(d) vertical view scroll makes the auditorium occupy most of screen space and leaves the 'wandering space' visible at the top of the screen.",
   "alt": "Four screenshots: a '1 minute left until meeting starts' banner over the wandering space, the auditorium's front row lighting up, then the view scrolling down until the auditorium seating fills most of the screen.",
   "location": "Fig. 4, p. 6",
   "credit": "Figure 4 from Carlos Gonzalez Diaz, John Tang, Advait Sarkar, and Sean Rintel. 2022. Making Space for Social Time: Supporting Conversational Transitions Before, During, and After Video Meetings. CHIWORK 2022. https://doi.org/10.1145/3533406.3533417"
  }
 ],
 "pageNumbersReferTo": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/making-space-for-social-time-supporting-conversational-transitions-before-during-and-after-video-meetings.pdf",
 "verified": "2026-10-25",
 "studyFigure": {
  "about": "The opening figure on this paper's page, made for the site with AI assistance from this verified brief. It is not the paper's own figure. Evidence entries index this file's quantitative, findings and limitations arrays.",
  "study": {
   "kind": "single",
   "summary": "Design study of a video meeting space for small talk before, during and after meetings. The prototype was built on an early version of Microsoft Mesh over ten weeks and tried in informal tests with 13 lab colleagues, not a formal evaluation.",
   "steps": [
    {
     "label": "Sketching",
     "detail": "The authors sketched ideas together over about four weeks of weekly design meetings."
    },
    {
     "label": "Building and internal tests",
     "detail": "The authors built the prototype and tested it among themselves in weekly one-hour sessions for six weeks."
    },
    {
     "label": "Two informal tests",
     "detail": "Two 30 minute sessions with 8 and 5 lab colleagues, who were not told how the prototype worked."
    },
    {
     "label": "Observation",
     "detail": "A moderator moved testers between before, during and after the meeting every 3 to 5 minutes. Notes became early design implications."
    }
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  },
  "tool": {
   "heading": "The prototype",
   "steps": [
    {
     "title": "Open early, close late",
     "text": "The space opens 5 minutes before the scheduled meeting and stays open 5 minutes after it."
    },
    {
     "title": "Wander",
     "text": "Each person appears as a round video bubble and drags it around an open space with the mouse.",
     "part": true
    },
    {
     "title": "Form a social bubble",
     "text": "When two video bubbles come close, a social bubble forms around them. A tone and a zoom animation mark joining or leaving.",
     "part": true
    },
    {
     "title": "Hear who is near",
     "text": "People inside a social bubble hear each other at full volume, while others hear only quieter background chatter.",
     "part": true
    },
    {
     "title": "Enter the meeting",
     "text": "Before the start, an announcement appears and an auditorium lights up. Moving into its seats brings the meeting into view, and people can leave and rejoin anytime."
    }
   ],
   "note": "The prototype was not compared with another system."
  },
  "findings": {
   "legend": null,
   "stages": [
    {
     "title": "Mingling and stepping out",
     "sub": "what testers did in informal tests",
     "items": [
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Testers enjoyed dragging video bubbles to join and leave small groups.",
       "detail": "Testers had no explanation of how the prototype worked, and mingling took very little learning.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[0]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Testers stepped out of the official meeting to talk, then stepped back in.",
       "detail": "Others could see testers come and go. The authors suggest such a space could make breakout rooms less abrupt.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[1]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "In these tests, simple spatial audio seemed sufficient, as no tester complained about being heard.",
       "detail": "Voices grew quieter with distance in the open space. Because sound and visuals reinforced each other, the audio's own effect is hard to separate.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[4]"
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      }
     ]
    },
    {
     "title": "Where testers got stuck",
     "sub": "entering the meeting, and what the space was for",
     "items": [
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Entering the official meeting was not obvious to testers.",
       "detail": "Despite an announcement and the auditorium lighting up, the authors had to explain repeatedly that testers should move into it.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[2]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Testers understood abstract bubbles better than the illustrated auditorium.",
       "detail": "The authors had expected the concrete auditorium picture to be the clearer of the two.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[5]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Most testers assumed the space would replace meetings as an all-day world.",
       "detail": "Testers had been told to imagine a meeting scheduled like any other, joined several times a day.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[3]"
       ]
      }
     ]
    }
   ]
  },
  "keyTerm": "conversational transitions",
  "takeaway": "A social space before and after video meetings can support conversational transitions, making room for arrivals, small talk and goodbyes. The move into the meeting may need to be obvious, as roaming space and meeting room feel starkly different."
 }
}