Enrolling a head-mounted display in an organizational meeting routine Since 2012, architects and engineers have been using VEs produced by CAD software to sketch

and design 2D and 3D models of buildings. They have used these tools to present and explain projects to clients in an organizational meeting routine. They do this at different stages of a building project. In the beginning of a building project, they present the project introducing the clients to the design of the building or, if later in the process, they have client meetings to present project updates to the clients. They use these client meetings to sell new building projects or additions to an existing project. The overall intention in this organizational meeting routine is to convince their clients so that they approve of their idea of a new building or any new additions to an existing project. In one project, for example, they argued with the client, an architect, whether or not they should install a railing on a staircase landing, which was important for safety reasons.

But this addition might also be expensive to the client. And in order for the client to be convinced, the client needed to be impressed but more importantly, to be able to have the same understanding

Thesis 110 of the 2D and 3D drawings. And even though professionals, such as architects and engineers, can usually interpret these technical drawings as well as 2D and 3D models, the drawings or models require some level of interpretation which can result in misunderstandings. At other times, the clients might be laymen who had never been involved in a building project before, and in these cases, misunderstandings might also arise as they naturally had difficulties in interpreting these drawings or models.

As mentioned, these difficulties may lead to misunderstandings between the client and the general contractor, which in turn can create mistrust and an inefficient building process. Traditionally, 2D and 3D models were displayed on regular computer screens, and clients and users could move around in them using a keyboard or a mouse. To convince potential clients or to avoid these misunderstandings in the later stages of a process, clients are involved in the building project as early on in a project as possible. However, it does not always suffice to show previous technology such as 2D plan drawings and even the aforementioned 3D models to future clients.

The employees of this organization therefore saw the current technology as restraining the performances and the idea of the organizational routine. In particular, as they wanted to reduce misunderstandings, they regarded the current way of communicating to clients, through 2D and 3D models shown on traditional monitors, as inadequate because it was not immersing their clients to the degree they now wanted. That is, the computer monitors on which they used to show 2D and 3D models did not provide an inclusive, extensive, surrounding, and vivid illusion of reality to the senses of the client. As a consequence, misunderstandings and mistrust could arise between the general contractor and the client and at that time, they regarded this as being too big of a problem with the current technologies.

To handle this problem, they decided to complement the other tools with a head-mounted display.

Initially in 2015, however, they did not succeed in enrolling a more immersive technology as it required too much development effort, as the following quote illustrates:

“We started to use VR in 2015 – slowly. Back then there was a lot of development work. There were not a lot of default applications so we had to use Unity or Unreal [standard 3D graphics engines] and build our own base [software] on that. So, at that point we looked at it but we moved away from

it.” (Group interview – interviewee 1).

Thesis 111 The head-mounted display they looked into in 2015 required that they developed their own software which, despite their new goal, would require too many resources to enroll into their existing organizational meeting routine.

They therefore decided to initially buy and use a cheaper head-mounted display that did not require a lot of resources. But after some time, in 2016 they identified a plug-in that was compatible with their existing software and which could convert their existing models so that they became compatible with a new and more advanced head-mounted display.

This new head-mounted display was easier to enroll into the existing organizational meeting routine as they only needed to install the plug-in on their existing CAD software to make their existing 3D models compatible with the head-mounted display. In this fashion, clients could be immersed in existing 3D models. The head-mounted display itself was wired to a computer. When a client put it on during the organizational meeting routine, she was also handed a pair of controllers which she could use to walk, jump, or fly around. And because of sensors around her, she was able to move her head and look around in for example a 3D model of a house. While she was doing this, what she saw when wearing the head-mounted display was also shown on a computer display. In this manner, others could potentially follow what she was doing.

The head-mounted display, and its related hardware and software, differentiated itself from the existing technology as clients could potentially understand designs better while attending a client meeting. This was especially due to the head-mounted display’s ability to potentially provide users with a panoramic view, while the materiality of the head-mounted display shut out the physical surrounding environment, together with its ability to make clients look around in 3D models in a natural manner. In all, these abilities to surround, be inclusive, and match client body movements, made it easier for clients to experience a sense of scale when immersed into a virtual building.

Consequently, by supplementing the more immersive technology with the existing ones during the organizational meeting routine, they increased the chances of clients better understanding a given building project.

In short, prompted by the aforementioned intention, this organization acquired a new technology which was enrolled and retained in the ostensive pattern of the organizational routine, in turn increasing the potential for immersing clients.

Thesis 112 6.2.2 Retaining the head-mounted display in the organizational meeting routine The interviewees showed excitement about the head-mounted display as it enabled clients to walk and look around while being shut off from the surrounding environment. One of the interviewees mentioned that the immersive VE that it facilitates provides a more physical experience to the clients, referring to the immersive technology’s ability to let the client look around in a 3D model by moving their head – just as in real life. As the following dialogue between the interviewees illustrates:

Interviewee 3: “So your experience [with a client] was that it was a very bodily interaction…?”

Interviewee 1: “Yes very much…”

Interviewee 2: “Physically walking around and going upstairs, opening doors, and going through doors… interacting with walls…”

Interviewee 3: “That is what it [head-mounted display] does differently… compared to when you just look at a screen.”

Interviewee 1: “Yes. One example is… in a project we didn't have a railing on the landing of a staircase. So, when the architect [client] walked around in the model he accidentally fell down from the landing.”

Interviewee 3: “In a virtual space…hopefully?”

Interviewee 1: “Yes, in a virtual space.”

Interviewee 2: “And we had warned them about the danger of not setting up the railing, but they were somewhat against that proposal. So as interviewee 1 says, then the client walked around on the landing and he suddenly fell down. And because he experienced the falling with his body, he reacted as if he landed in real life. And it wasn't like a small reaction it was quite clear that he got genuinely surprised as he fell down. The falling felt real. And because of this incident he became convinced that this railing should be there anyway.”

Interviewee 1: “So what we see is that they begin to interact more with the model.”

(Group interview – dialogue between interviewees).

The dialogue points out that the more immersive technology changed the way the clients understand 3D models by making their experience more physical. The walking and looking around made the 3D models, in some instances, easier to understand and helped them to achieve what they had intended with the head-mounted display by reducing misunderstandings between the client and the general contractor. Hence, the performances of which the head-mounted display

Thesis 113 was a part in turn became a variation which was retained in the ostensive pattern of the organizational meeting routine. This new variation, involving the affordances of the head-mounted display, modified the current ostensive pattern because the previous and less immersive technology inhibited their intention of reducing misunderstandings. The interviewee also noted that the modified ostensive pattern did not prevent them from guiding their future actions, indicating that it could be used to guide future actions of employees and clients while also legitimizing their past actions – as illustrated in the aforementioned quote.

This was due not only to the materiality of the head-mounted display and its material agency, which together provided clients with a more immersive experience, but also to the employees in the organization and their ability to experiment and integrate the immersive technology, which allowed them to integrate it into the existing ostensive pattern of the organizational meeting routine.

Their experience with the head-mounted display led them to conclude that it could be integrated into their existing ostensive pattern as it helped them to reduce misunderstandings.

Architect Company A

The architect company, located in Northern Europe, is involved in the planning and design phase of building projects. They started to use head-mounted displays as a complimentary tool during presentations to convince potential clients and already existing clients of new building designs or updates to existing ones. They first enrolled head-mounted displays in the organizational meeting routine in 2016. At the time of the interview, the enrolled head-mounted displays were a relatively new initiative.

The following sections describe and analyses chronologically, starting in 2016, how two different head-mounted displays were enrolled and eventually retained in the ostensive pattern of their organizational meeting routine.

6.3.1 Enrolling a head-mounted display in an organizational meeting routine