{
 "@context": "https://schema.org",
 "@type": "ScholarlyArticle",
 "@id": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/nods-of-agreement-webcam-driven-avatars-improve-meeting-outcomes-and-avatar-satisfaction-over-audio-driven-or-static-avatars-in-all-avatar-work-videoconferencing.html#paper",
 "aboutThisFile": {
  "whatThisIs": "A research brief: a structured summary of one paper, prepared for seanrintel.com from the paper's full text.",
  "howItWasMade": "This brief was prepared with AI assistance and published by Sean Rintel. It is not the authors' published text.",
  "whatIsVerbatim": "Only 'quote' fields, figure captions and 'abstract' are the authors' own words. Research questions follow the paper's wording where it states them. Takeaway, summaries, answers, definitions and method are the site's plain-language paraphrase.",
  "howItIsChecked": "Before publication every quote is matched against the paper and every number in the brief is found in it. 'verified' is the date of the last check.",
  "howToUse": [
   "For a quick answer, use 'takeaway' and 'questions'. For evidence, use 'findings' (each has a verbatim quote, its location in the paper and a 'url' anchored to that finding on the paper's page).",
   "Locations such as '§5.2, p. 9' refer to the version at 'pageNumbersReferTo'.",
   "For anything not covered here, read the paper itself: 'fullTextSources' lists free versions first.",
   "If 'researchOverview' is present, the paper is part of one of Sean Rintel's research overviews: it gives the overview's thesis, the claims this paper is evidence for and its role in each, and the other papers in the overview.",
   "To find other papers by Sean Rintel, use the catalogue at https://seanrintel.com/publications/index.json."
  ],
  "authorship": "Sean Rintel's role on each paper: lead author when he is first author, sole author when he is the only author, and otherwise senior author. Senior author here means the senior researcher on the team, whatever his position in the author list.",
  "howToCite": "Cite the paper, not this file: use 'citation' or the ready-made 'bibtex' (DOI where given) and name every author. Attribute paraphrase to the paper's findings, and use quotation marks only for 'quote' text."
 },
 "name": "Nods of Agreement: Webcam-Driven Avatars Improve Meeting Outcomes and Avatar Satisfaction Over Audio-Driven or Static Avatars in All-Avatar Work Videoconferencing",
 "author": [
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Fang Ma"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Ju Zhang"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Lev Tankelevitch"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Payod Panda"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Torang Asadi"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Charlie Hewitt"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Lohit Petikam"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "James Clemoes"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Marco Gillies"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Xueni Pan"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "@id": "https://seanrintel.com/#sean-rintel",
   "name": "Sean Rintel",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/",
   "sameAs": [
    "https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0840-0546",
    "https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xc25GRgAAAAJ",
    "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q102369654",
    "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/serintel/",
    "https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanrintel"
   ]
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Marta Wilczkowiak"
  }
 ],
 "datePublished": "2025-04",
 "doi": "10.1145/3711040",
 "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/nods-of-agreement-webcam-driven-avatars-improve-meeting-outcomes-and-avatar-satisfaction-over-audio-driven-or-static-avatars-in-all-avatar-work-videoconferencing.html",
 "citation": "Fang Ma, Ju Zhang, Lev Tankelevitch, Payod Panda, Torang Asadi, Charlie Hewitt, Lohit Petikam, James Clemoes, Marco Gillies, Xueni Pan, Sean Rintel, and Marta Wilczkowiak. 2025. Nods of Agreement: Webcam-Driven Avatars Improve Meeting Outcomes and Avatar Satisfaction Over Audio-Driven or Static Avatars in All-Avatar Work Videoconferencing. CSCW 2025. https://doi.org/10.1145/3711040",
 "bibtex": "@inproceedings{ma2025nods,\nauthor = {Ma, Fang and Zhang,  Ju and Tankelevitch, Lev and Panda, Payod and Asadi, Torang and Hewitt, Charlie and Petikam, Lohit and Clemoes, James and Gillies, Marco and Pan, Xueni and Rintel, Sean and Wilczkowiak, Marta},\ntitle = {Nods of Agreement: Webcam-Driven Avatars Improve Meeting Outcomes and Avatar Satisfaction Over Audio-Driven or Static Avatars in All-Avatar Work Videoconferencing},\nbooktitle = {CSCW 2025},\nyear = {2025},\nmonth = {April},\npublisher = {ACM},\nnote = {Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 9, 2, Article CSCW142 (April 2025)},\nurl = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3711040},\ndoi = {10.1145/3711040},\n}",
 "abstract": "Avatars are edging into mainstream videoconferencing, but evaluation of how avatar animation modalities contribute to work meeting outcomes has been limited. We report a within-group videoconferencing experiment in which 68 employees of a global technology company, in 16 groups, used the same stylized avatars in three modalities (static picture, audio-animation, and webcam-animation) to complete collaborative decision-making tasks. Quantitatively, for meeting outcomes, webcam-animated avatars improved meeting effectiveness over the picture modality and were also reported to be more comfortable and inclusive than both other modalities. In terms of avatar satisfaction, there was a similar preference for webcam animation as compared to both other modalities. Our qualitative analysis shows participants expressing a preference for the holistic motion of webcam animation, and that meaningful movement outweighs realism for meeting outcomes, as evidenced through a systematic overview of ten thematic factors. We discuss implications for research and commercial deployment and conclude that webcam-animated avatars are a plausible alternative to video in work meetings.",
 "fullTextSources": [
  {
   "kind": "freeAccess",
   "url": "https://doi.org/10.1145/3711040",
   "label": "DOI (Free Access)"
  },
  {
   "kind": "freeAccess",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/nods-of-agreement-webcam-driven-avatars-improve-meeting-outcomes-and-avatar-satisfaction-over-audio-driven-or-static-avatars-in-all-avatar-work-videoconferencing.pdf",
   "label": "Author's Copy"
  },
  {
   "kind": "freeAccess",
   "url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2412.13265",
   "label": "Preprint (arXiv - Free Access)"
  }
 ],
 "fullTextAvailable": true,
 "takeaway": "In all-avatar work meetings, meaningful movement beats realism. Webcam-driven nods and smiles made colleagues more comfortable and included than lip-synced or static avatars, because they gave visible feedback, though alignment with group decisions did not differ.",
 "whyItMatters": {
  "stateOfTheArt": {
   "summary": "Microsoft Teams and Zoom introduced stylised avatars in 2023, with limited animation. Prior research showed motion fidelity matters more than visual fidelity for trust and self-identification, but its link to work meeting outcomes was unclear.",
   "quote": "However, the link between avatar motion fidelity and work meeting outcomes remains unclear. More broadly, avatar research on meeting outcomes is very limited",
   "location": "§1, p. 2"
  },
  "contribution": {
   "summary": "A controlled comparison with real colleagues of three avatar animation modalities (static picture, audio-animated, webcam-animated) on meeting outcomes and avatar satisfaction, plus a thematic framework of ten factors.",
   "quote": "A systematic thematic qualitative framework of ten factors of user responses about avatars in three categories, which allows for comparison of factors around user preferences versus those around meeting outcomes.",
   "location": "§1, p. 3"
  },
  "whoCares": {
   "summary": "Researchers of avatar-mediated communication and the industrial designers building avatars for videoconferencing, and people who prefer not to, or cannot, use video at work.",
   "quote": "This categorization serves as a valuable resource not only for researchers seeking a deeper understanding of user preferences but also for industrial designers involved in avatar development.",
   "location": "§6, p. 23"
  }
 },
 "researchQuestions": [
  "RQ1. How does avatar animation modality impact meeting outcomes?",
  "RQ2. Which avatar animation modality do people prefer?"
 ],
 "concepts": [
  {
   "term": "Avatar animation modality",
   "definition": "How an avatar is animated. The three conditions compared:",
   "quote": "no animation (picture), audio-animation (visemes), and webcam-animation (visemes, facial expressions, and head movements)",
   "location": "§1, p. 2"
  },
  {
   "term": "Meeting outcome factors",
   "definition": "Effectiveness (did the group reach a decision), alignment (agreement with it), comfort and inclusivity.",
   "quote": "an empirical examination of the impact of avatar-based communication in meetings needs to focus on meeting outcome factors (effectiveness, alignment, comfort, and inclusivity)",
   "location": "§2.2, p. 5"
  },
  {
   "term": "Avatar satisfaction factors",
   "definition": "How well one's own avatar and others' avatars express themselves, and which modality people choose.",
   "quote": "avatar satisfaction factors (self-expressive perception, other-expression perception, and avatar preference)",
   "location": "§2.2, p. 5"
  },
  {
   "term": "Motion fidelity vs visual fidelity",
   "definition": "How faithfully an avatar moves, as opposed to how realistic it looks.",
   "quote": "outcome-oriented research on avatars has consistently shown that motion fidelity is more important than visual fidelity",
   "location": "§2.1, p. 4"
  }
 ],
 "method": {
  "design": "Within-subjects, mixed-methods experiment. Each group used all three animation modalities, in an order counterbalanced across groups with a Latin square.",
  "prototype": "Personalised stylised avatars for video meetings. Each participant's avatar was generated from a short self video and two photographs, using 3D face reconstruction, and participants chose from three versions in advance. A Unity3D application on their own computer animated the avatar and fed it into Microsoft Teams as a virtual camera, so others saw the avatar in place of video. It had three modes: a static picture of the avatar, audio animation, in which the avatar's lips moved with the person's voice, and webcam animation, in which the person's webcam drove the avatar's facial expressions and head movements. Each group met in all three modes.",
  "prototypeFigure": 1,
  "setting": "Microsoft Teams meetings in gallery view in which everyone, including the moderator, appeared as an avatar. Three five-minute group decision-making tasks, each followed by a questionnaire, then a 15-minute focus group in which participants chose their own mode.",
  "sample": "68 employees of a global technology company, in 16 groups of colleagues who already worked together (44 male, 24 female).",
  "n": 68,
  "duration": "About one hour per session.",
  "analysis": "Test of Proportions for effectiveness and Wilcoxon Signed-Rank tests for 5-point measures. Inductive then deductive thematic analysis of free-text responses (50 of 68 participants responded)."
 },
 "findings": [
  {
   "headline": "More participants reported a decision than with pictures.",
   "summary": "Groups of colleagues held short decision-making meetings in which everyone appeared as an avatar. More participants said their group reached a decision when avatars were animated by webcam than when they were static pictures. The difference from avatars animated by voice alone was not significant.",
   "quote": "It [webcam-animated modality] was helpful to see smiles and head nods as feedback to my statements",
   "location": "§4.2.2, p. 18",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/nods-of-agreement-webcam-driven-avatars-improve-meeting-outcomes-and-avatar-satisfaction-over-audio-driven-or-static-avatars-in-all-avatar-work-videoconferencing.html#at-s4-2-2-p-18",
   "cite": "Fang Ma, Ju Zhang, Lev Tankelevitch, Payod Panda, Torang Asadi, Charlie Hewitt, Lohit Petikam, James Clemoes, Marco Gillies, Xueni Pan, Sean Rintel, and Marta Wilczkowiak. 2025. Nods of Agreement: Webcam-Driven Avatars Improve Meeting Outcomes and Avatar Satisfaction Over Audio-Driven or Static Avatars in All-Avatar Work Videoconferencing. CSCW 2025. https://doi.org/10.1145/3711040 (§4.2.2, p. 18)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "More comfortable, more included.",
   "summary": "Participants felt more comfortable and more included in meetings with webcam-animated avatars than with either voice-animated or static ones. How far they agreed with the group's decision did not differ significantly between modes.",
   "quote": "The [picture modality] was somewhat exhausting, as it presented difficulties in discerning the appropriate moments to contribute to the discussion",
   "location": "§4.2.1, p. 15",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/nods-of-agreement-webcam-driven-avatars-improve-meeting-outcomes-and-avatar-satisfaction-over-audio-driven-or-static-avatars-in-all-avatar-work-videoconferencing.html#at-s4-2-1-p-15",
   "cite": "Fang Ma, Ju Zhang, Lev Tankelevitch, Payod Panda, Torang Asadi, Charlie Hewitt, Lohit Petikam, James Clemoes, Marco Gillies, Xueni Pan, Sean Rintel, and Marta Wilczkowiak. 2025. Nods of Agreement: Webcam-Driven Avatars Improve Meeting Outcomes and Avatar Satisfaction Over Audio-Driven or Static Avatars in All-Avatar Work Videoconferencing. CSCW 2025. https://doi.org/10.1145/3711040 (§4.2.1, p. 15)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Lip-sync alone was not enough.",
   "summary": "Avatars whose lips moved with the speaker's voice were rated more expressive than static pictures, but did not improve any meeting outcome over them.",
   "quote": "The upshot is that partial or subtle expressive cues can enhance interaction and expressiveness when contrasted with entirely static representations.",
   "location": "§5.2, p. 19",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/nods-of-agreement-webcam-driven-avatars-improve-meeting-outcomes-and-avatar-satisfaction-over-audio-driven-or-static-avatars-in-all-avatar-work-videoconferencing.html#at-s5-2-p-19",
   "cite": "Fang Ma, Ju Zhang, Lev Tankelevitch, Payod Panda, Torang Asadi, Charlie Hewitt, Lohit Petikam, James Clemoes, Marco Gillies, Xueni Pan, Sean Rintel, and Marta Wilczkowiak. 2025. Nods of Agreement: Webcam-Driven Avatars Improve Meeting Outcomes and Avatar Satisfaction Over Audio-Driven or Static Avatars in All-Avatar Work Videoconferencing. CSCW 2025. https://doi.org/10.1145/3711040 (§5.2, p. 19)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Nearly everyone chose the webcam avatar.",
   "summary": "When free to choose their mode for the closing focus group, almost every participant picked the webcam-animated avatar.",
   "quote": "I appeared as the [webcam-animated modality] because it felt expressive but didn't invade my privacy like a full-on camera would.",
   "location": "§4.2.1, p. 16",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/nods-of-agreement-webcam-driven-avatars-improve-meeting-outcomes-and-avatar-satisfaction-over-audio-driven-or-static-avatars-in-all-avatar-work-videoconferencing.html#at-s4-2-1-p-16",
   "cite": "Fang Ma, Ju Zhang, Lev Tankelevitch, Payod Panda, Torang Asadi, Charlie Hewitt, Lohit Petikam, James Clemoes, Marco Gillies, Xueni Pan, Sean Rintel, and Marta Wilczkowiak. 2025. Nods of Agreement: Webcam-Driven Avatars Improve Meeting Outcomes and Avatar Satisfaction Over Audio-Driven or Static Avatars in All-Avatar Work Videoconferencing. CSCW 2025. https://doi.org/10.1145/3711040 (§4.2.1, p. 16)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Movement over realism.",
   "summary": "In participants' written comments, every theme linked to both preference and meeting outcomes concerned movement, such as expressiveness and non-verbal cues, not how realistic the avatar looked.",
   "quote": "the motion of smiles, head nods, and head shakes are considered more critical for achieving effective communication than realism",
   "location": "§5.3, p. 20",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/nods-of-agreement-webcam-driven-avatars-improve-meeting-outcomes-and-avatar-satisfaction-over-audio-driven-or-static-avatars-in-all-avatar-work-videoconferencing.html#at-s5-3-p-20",
   "cite": "Fang Ma, Ju Zhang, Lev Tankelevitch, Payod Panda, Torang Asadi, Charlie Hewitt, Lohit Petikam, James Clemoes, Marco Gillies, Xueni Pan, Sean Rintel, and Marta Wilczkowiak. 2025. Nods of Agreement: Webcam-Driven Avatars Improve Meeting Outcomes and Avatar Satisfaction Over Audio-Driven or Static Avatars in All-Avatar Work Videoconferencing. CSCW 2025. https://doi.org/10.1145/3711040 (§5.3, p. 20)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Many said the avatar made no difference.",
   "summary": "Many participants felt the avatar mode did not affect their group's decision making, pointing instead to how complex the task was and how well they knew their team.",
   "quote": "Not for this group because we all know each other very well so the non-animated avatars were just like being in a phone call.",
   "location": "§4.2.2, p. 18",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/nods-of-agreement-webcam-driven-avatars-improve-meeting-outcomes-and-avatar-satisfaction-over-audio-driven-or-static-avatars-in-all-avatar-work-videoconferencing.html#at-s4-2-2-p-18-2",
   "cite": "Fang Ma, Ju Zhang, Lev Tankelevitch, Payod Panda, Torang Asadi, Charlie Hewitt, Lohit Petikam, James Clemoes, Marco Gillies, Xueni Pan, Sean Rintel, and Marta Wilczkowiak. 2025. Nods of Agreement: Webcam-Driven Avatars Improve Meeting Outcomes and Avatar Satisfaction Over Audio-Driven or Static Avatars in All-Avatar Work Videoconferencing. CSCW 2025. https://doi.org/10.1145/3711040 (§4.2.2, p. 18)"
  }
 ],
 "questions": [
  {
   "question": "Are animated avatars good enough to replace video in work meetings?",
   "answer": "The authors argue webcam-animated avatars are a plausible alternative where video is impractical, though they did not test them against video. Compared with static or lip-synced avatars, they made colleagues feel more comfortable and included, and 95.6% chose them.",
   "source": "Fang Ma, Ju Zhang, Lev Tankelevitch, Payod Panda, Torang Asadi, Charlie Hewitt, Lohit Petikam, James Clemoes, Marco Gillies, Xueni Pan, Sean Rintel, and Marta Wilczkowiak. 2025. Nods of Agreement: Webcam-Driven Avatars Improve Meeting Outcomes and Avatar Satisfaction Over Audio-Driven or Static Avatars in All-Avatar Work Videoconferencing. CSCW 2025. https://doi.org/10.1145/3711040",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§4.2.1, p. 15",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/nods-of-agreement-webcam-driven-avatars-improve-meeting-outcomes-and-avatar-satisfaction-over-audio-driven-or-static-avatars-in-all-avatar-work-videoconferencing.html#at-s4-2-1-p-15"
    },
    {
     "location": "§4.2.1, p. 16",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/nods-of-agreement-webcam-driven-avatars-improve-meeting-outcomes-and-avatar-satisfaction-over-audio-driven-or-static-avatars-in-all-avatar-work-videoconferencing.html#at-s4-2-1-p-16"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "question": "Does avatar animation help teams reach decisions in video meetings?",
   "answer": "Somewhat. More people said their group reached a decision with webcam-animated avatars than with static pictures. It was not significantly more than with audio-animated ones, and agreement with the decision did not differ. Many credited task complexity and team familiarity more than the avatars.",
   "source": "Fang Ma, Ju Zhang, Lev Tankelevitch, Payod Panda, Torang Asadi, Charlie Hewitt, Lohit Petikam, James Clemoes, Marco Gillies, Xueni Pan, Sean Rintel, and Marta Wilczkowiak. 2025. Nods of Agreement: Webcam-Driven Avatars Improve Meeting Outcomes and Avatar Satisfaction Over Audio-Driven or Static Avatars in All-Avatar Work Videoconferencing. CSCW 2025. https://doi.org/10.1145/3711040",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§4.2.2, p. 18",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/nods-of-agreement-webcam-driven-avatars-improve-meeting-outcomes-and-avatar-satisfaction-over-audio-driven-or-static-avatars-in-all-avatar-work-videoconferencing.html#at-s4-2-2-p-18"
    },
    {
     "location": "§4.2.1, p. 15",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/nods-of-agreement-webcam-driven-avatars-improve-meeting-outcomes-and-avatar-satisfaction-over-audio-driven-or-static-avatars-in-all-avatar-work-videoconferencing.html#at-s4-2-1-p-15"
    },
    {
     "location": "§4.2.2, p. 18",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/nods-of-agreement-webcam-driven-avatars-improve-meeting-outcomes-and-avatar-satisfaction-over-audio-driven-or-static-avatars-in-all-avatar-work-videoconferencing.html#at-s4-2-2-p-18-2"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "question": "Is lip-sync animation enough for meeting avatars?",
   "answer": "Not for meeting outcomes. Audio-driven mouth movement made avatars seem more expressive than static pictures, but it did not improve effectiveness, alignment, comfort or inclusivity. Head and face motion from the webcam did more.",
   "source": "Fang Ma, Ju Zhang, Lev Tankelevitch, Payod Panda, Torang Asadi, Charlie Hewitt, Lohit Petikam, James Clemoes, Marco Gillies, Xueni Pan, Sean Rintel, and Marta Wilczkowiak. 2025. Nods of Agreement: Webcam-Driven Avatars Improve Meeting Outcomes and Avatar Satisfaction Over Audio-Driven or Static Avatars in All-Avatar Work Videoconferencing. CSCW 2025. https://doi.org/10.1145/3711040",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§5.2, p. 19",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/nods-of-agreement-webcam-driven-avatars-improve-meeting-outcomes-and-avatar-satisfaction-over-audio-driven-or-static-avatars-in-all-avatar-work-videoconferencing.html#at-s5-2-p-19"
    },
    {
     "location": "§5.3, p. 20",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/nods-of-agreement-webcam-driven-avatars-improve-meeting-outcomes-and-avatar-satisfaction-over-audio-driven-or-static-avatars-in-all-avatar-work-videoconferencing.html#at-s5-3-p-20"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "question": "Do people want others to read their expressions in meetings?",
   "answer": "Not always. Some people seemed to want to be harder to read themselves, while wanting others animated so they could read their feelings. One found the webcam-animated avatar tiring because it meant being more 'on'. Earlier avatar and video-call research reports the same tension.",
   "source": "Fang Ma, Ju Zhang, Lev Tankelevitch, Payod Panda, Torang Asadi, Charlie Hewitt, Lohit Petikam, James Clemoes, Marco Gillies, Xueni Pan, Sean Rintel, and Marta Wilczkowiak. 2025. Nods of Agreement: Webcam-Driven Avatars Improve Meeting Outcomes and Avatar Satisfaction Over Audio-Driven or Static Avatars in All-Avatar Work Videoconferencing. CSCW 2025. https://doi.org/10.1145/3711040",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§4.2.1, p. 15",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/nods-of-agreement-webcam-driven-avatars-improve-meeting-outcomes-and-avatar-satisfaction-over-audio-driven-or-static-avatars-in-all-avatar-work-videoconferencing.html#at-s4-2-1-p-15"
    },
    {
     "location": "§5.3, p. 20",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/nods-of-agreement-webcam-driven-avatars-improve-meeting-outcomes-and-avatar-satisfaction-over-audio-driven-or-static-avatars-in-all-avatar-work-videoconferencing.html#at-s5-3-p-20"
    }
   ]
  }
 ],
 "cites": [
  {
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/beyond-audio-towards-a-design-space-of-headphones-as-a-site-for-interaction-and-sensing.html",
   "title": "Beyond Audio: Towards a Design Space of Headphones as a Site for Interaction and Sensing",
   "location": "p. 26"
  },
  {
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/conversational-management-of-network-trouble-perturbations-in-personal-videoconferencing.html",
   "title": "Conversational management of network trouble perturbations in personal videoconferencing",
   "location": "p. 26"
  },
  {
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/low-engagement-as-a-deliberate-practice-of-remote-participants-in-video-meetings.html",
   "title": "Low Engagement As a Deliberate Practice of Remote Participants in Video Meetings",
   "location": "p. 25"
  },
  {
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/maximizing-environmental-validity-remote-recording-of-desktop-videoconferencing.html",
   "title": "Maximizing environmental validity: remote recording of desktop videoconferencing",
   "location": "p. 26"
  },
  {
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/meeting-the-pandemic-videoconferencing-fatigue-and-evolving-tensions-of-sociality-in-enterprise-video-meetings-during-covid-19.html",
   "title": "Meeting (the) Pandemic: Videoconferencing  Fatigue and Evolving Tensions of Sociality  in Enterprise Video Meetings During  COVID-19",
   "location": "p. 24"
  },
  {
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/nice-is-different-than-good-longitudinal-communicative-effects-of-realistic-and-cartoon-avatars-in-real-mixed-reality-work-meetings.html",
   "title": "Nice is Different than Good: Longitudinal Communicative Effects of Realistic and Cartoon Avatars in Real Mixed Reality Work Meetings",
   "location": "p. 25"
  }
 ],
 "quantitative": [
  {
   "measure": "Participants who said the group reached agreement: webcam, audio, static",
   "value": "96%, 87%, 79%",
   "location": "Table 2, p. 13"
  },
  {
   "measure": "Effectiveness, webcam vs static (Test of Proportions)",
   "value": "z = 2.85, p = 0.004",
   "location": "§4.1, p. 11"
  },
  {
   "measure": "Effectiveness, webcam vs audio",
   "value": "z = 1.81, p = 0.070",
   "location": "§4.1, p. 11"
  },
  {
   "measure": "Comfort, webcam vs audio; webcam vs static (Wilcoxon)",
   "value": "T = 146, z = 2.46, p = .014; T = 474, z = 3.05, p = .002",
   "location": "Table 2, p. 13"
  },
  {
   "measure": "Inclusivity, webcam vs audio; webcam vs static (Wilcoxon)",
   "value": "T = 581, z = 2.68, p = .007; T = 541, z = 2.92, p = .003",
   "location": "Table 2, p. 13"
  },
  {
   "measure": "Chose webcam-animated avatar for the focus group",
   "value": "65 participants (95.6%)",
   "location": "§4.1, p. 12"
  },
  {
   "measure": "Felt avatar modality had no influence on group decision making",
   "value": "66% of participants (33 out of 50)",
   "location": "§4.2, p. 18"
  }
 ],
 "implications": [
  {
   "summary": "Meaningful movement outperforms realism for meeting outcomes. Developers focusing on visual fidelity may raise immediate satisfaction without making meetings more effective.",
   "quote": "focusing on visual fidelity might increase the users' immediate satisfaction, but not necessarily lead to a more effective meeting",
   "location": "§5.3, p. 21"
  },
  {
   "summary": "Where video is impractical, webcam-animated avatars could be better than turning the camera off.",
   "quote": "webcam-animated avatars could be more advantageous compared to merely deactivating the camera",
   "location": "§5.3, p. 21"
  },
  {
   "summary": "Adding hand gestures and blending animation technologies, such as more natural audio-driven head motion, are promising next steps."
  }
 ],
 "limitations": [
  {
   "summary": "Participants used their own computers, webcams and connections, so quality varied. Some data were discarded and some sessions were split.",
   "quote": "A key limitation of the study resulted from the trade-off of ecological validity [34] against experimental consistency.",
   "location": "§5.4, p. 22"
  },
  {
   "summary": "Each discussion was capped at five minutes to fit a one-hour session."
  },
  {
   "summary": "Teams already knew each other well, and all came from one company. Results may differ for unfamiliar teams and other organisations."
  },
  {
   "summary": "The sample was unbalanced by gender (24 female, 44 male), and there was too little data on mixed-modality meetings to draw conclusions."
  }
 ],
 "figures": [
  {
   "src": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/figures/nods-of-agreement-webcam-driven-avatars-improve-meeting-outcomes-and-avatar-satisfaction-over-audio-driven-or-static-avatars-in-all-avatar-work-videoconferencing/fig-3.webp",
   "caption": "Fig. 3. Quantitative results comparing the three avatar modalities on the outcomes of meeting effectiveness, alignment, comfort, and inclusivity. Violin plots depict distributions of numeric data using density curves. Red dots and lines depict individual responses, illustrating comparisons across the three modalities. Black crosses indicate mean values. For effectiveness, a yes/no response scale was used to measure whether the meeting reached an agreed decision. For alignment, comfort, and inclusivity, a five-point response scale was used, where 1 indicates 'low' and 5 indicates 'high' on the response scale, respectively. * indicates p < 0.05, ** indicates p < 0.01, 'ns' indicates not statistically significant.",
   "alt": "Four violin plots comparing webcam, audio and static avatars. Webcam beats static on effectiveness. Webcam beats both on comfort and inclusivity. Alignment shows no differences (ns) between any modalities.",
   "location": "Fig. 3, p. 12",
   "credit": "Figure 3 from Fang Ma, Ju Zhang, Lev Tankelevitch, Payod Panda, Torang Asadi, Charlie Hewitt, Lohit Petikam, James Clemoes, Marco Gillies, Xueni Pan, Sean Rintel, and Marta Wilczkowiak. 2025. Nods of Agreement: Webcam-Driven Avatars Improve Meeting Outcomes and Avatar Satisfaction Over Audio-Driven or Static Avatars in All-Avatar Work Videoconferencing. CSCW 2025. https://doi.org/10.1145/3711040"
  },
  {
   "src": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/figures/nods-of-agreement-webcam-driven-avatars-improve-meeting-outcomes-and-avatar-satisfaction-over-audio-driven-or-static-avatars-in-all-avatar-work-videoconferencing/fig-1.webp",
   "caption": "Fig. 1. An overview of the experimental study. a) A personalized 3D stylized avatar was generated for each participant, using their photos with facial landmarks, and preserving diverse personal features like beards, glasses, and hairstyles. b) Participants used their avatars in 3 modalities: static picture, audio-animated and webcam-animated, affecting their head movements and expressions (see supplementary video). c) Participants used the avatars in a videoconferencing meeting, during which they engaged in three group decision-making tasks, one for each avatar modality. Meeting outcomes and avatar satisfaction were measured after each task and compared.",
   "alt": "Three panels: personalised stylised 3D avatar heads, the three ways an avatar was animated (webcam, audio or static), and a video meeting in which everyone appears as an avatar.",
   "location": "Figure 1, p. 1",
   "credit": "Figure 1 from Fang Ma, Ju Zhang, Lev Tankelevitch, Payod Panda, Torang Asadi, Charlie Hewitt, Lohit Petikam, James Clemoes, Marco Gillies, Xueni Pan, Sean Rintel, and Marta Wilczkowiak. 2025. Nods of Agreement: Webcam-Driven Avatars Improve Meeting Outcomes and Avatar Satisfaction Over Audio-Driven or Static Avatars in All-Avatar Work Videoconferencing. CSCW 2025. https://doi.org/10.1145/3711040"
  }
 ],
 "pageNumbersReferTo": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/nods-of-agreement-webcam-driven-avatars-improve-meeting-outcomes-and-avatar-satisfaction-over-audio-driven-or-static-avatars-in-all-avatar-work-videoconferencing.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": "comparison",
   "summary": "Within-subjects experiment with 68 employees of a global technology company, in 16 groups of colleagues. Each group held three short decision meetings where everyone appeared as an avatar, once in each avatar mode, in counterbalanced order.",
   "columns": [
    "Five-minute decision meeting",
    "Questionnaire"
   ],
   "groups": [
    {
     "name": "Webcam avatars",
     "n": 68,
     "cells": [
      "Webcam drove each avatar's expressions and head movements",
      "Meeting outcomes and avatar ratings"
     ],
     "highlight": [
      0
     ],
     "nLabel": "all 68 people"
    },
    {
     "name": "Voice avatars",
     "n": 68,
     "cells": [
      "Each avatar's lips moved with the person's voice",
      "Meeting outcomes and avatar ratings"
     ],
     "nLabel": "all 68 people"
    },
    {
     "name": "Static avatars",
     "n": 68,
     "cells": [
      "Each avatar was a still picture",
      "Meeting outcomes and avatar ratings"
     ],
     "nLabel": "all 68 people"
    }
   ],
   "after": {
    "label": "Finally: a 15-minute focus group",
    "note": "Each person chose their own avatar mode"
   }
  },
  "tool": {
   "heading": "The avatars",
   "steps": [
    {
     "title": "Make the avatar",
     "text": "Each person's stylised avatar was generated from a short self video and two photographs, and each person chose from three versions."
    },
    {
     "title": "Join as the avatar",
     "text": "An app on each person's computer animated the avatar and fed it into the video meeting in place of the camera."
    },
    {
     "title": "Choose a mode",
     "text": "The app could show the avatar still, move its lips with the voice, or copy the face from the webcam.",
     "fields": [
      "still picture",
      "voice lip movement",
      "webcam expressions and nods"
     ],
     "part": true
    }
   ],
   "note": "The same colleagues met in all three modes, so each mode was compared with the others."
  },
  "findings": {
   "legend": "comparison",
   "stages": [
    {
     "title": "Meeting outcomes",
     "sub": "each mode compared, with the same colleagues",
     "items": [
      {
       "dir": "up",
       "text": "Webcam avatars: more participants said the group reached a decision.",
       "detail": "Self-reported, 96% against 79% with static avatars. Against voice avatars, at 87%, the difference was not reliable.",
       "evidence": [
        "quantitative[0]",
        "quantitative[1]",
        "quantitative[2]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "up",
       "text": "Webcam avatars: participants felt more comfortable in the meeting.",
       "detail": "Self-reported on 5-point scales, higher than with voice or static avatars.",
       "evidence": [
        "quantitative[3]",
        "findings[1]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "up",
       "text": "Webcam avatars: participants felt more included in the meeting.",
       "detail": "Self-reported on 5-point scales, higher than with voice or static avatars.",
       "evidence": [
        "quantitative[4]",
        "findings[1]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "flat",
       "text": "Webcam avatars: agreement with the group's decision was about the same as other modes.",
       "detail": "Self-reported. In written comments, 33 of 50 respondents felt the avatar mode did not affect group decisions.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[1]",
        "quantitative[6]",
        "findings[5]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "flat",
       "text": "Voice avatars: no meeting outcome improved over static avatars.",
       "detail": "Self-reported. Participants did rate voice avatars as more expressive than static pictures.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[2]"
       ]
      }
     ]
    },
    {
     "title": "Choice and comments",
     "sub": "the closing focus group and written comments",
     "items": [
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Webcam avatars: 65 of 68 participants chose them for the focus group.",
       "detail": "One participant wrote that the webcam avatar felt expressive without the privacy cost of a full camera.",
       "evidence": [
        "quantitative[5]",
        "findings[3]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Webcam avatars: written comments valued movement such as nods and smiles over realism.",
       "detail": "Every comment theme linked to both preference and meeting outcomes concerned movement, such as expressiveness and non-verbal cues.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[4]"
       ]
      }
     ]
    }
   ],
   "legendText": "↑ better than with voice-driven or static avatars   ↓ worse   – no reliable difference"
  },
  "keyTerm": "motion fidelity",
  "takeaway": "In meetings where everyone is an avatar, motion that carries feedback, such as nods and smiles, can make people comfortable and included. Motion fidelity may matter more than visual fidelity."
 }
}