Traditional video conferencing vs. effective virtual collaboration How to prevent online fatigue

More digital, faster and more effective: these are the requirements of the modern world of work. With more people working from home and increased mobility, the ‘short distances’ in the office are disappearing. The efficient exchange of information is becoming a challenge. A common solution: video conferencing. What works well for a brief discussion in a small group quickly reaches its limits in larger groups and longer meetings. Who is there again? How should I set the screen layout so that I don’t miss anything? Do the others see the same thing? Why do many people forget to mute themselves when they want to say something? How can we make this more structured and is it actually possible to create a more comfortable atmosphere? Questions that add up with every additional webcam and every additional minute. The result is a lack of group awareness, increasing concentration problems and ineffective and exhausting communication. To summarise: Video conferencing fatigue.
How can virtual collaboration be organised in such a way that it also works for groups of different sizes and for longer sessions? That was a challenge we set ourselves at the Fraunhofer IAO. We brought the results together in the innovative software solution ‘virtual team room’ – vitero for short: a clear and synchronised interface for everyone based on reality, representation using avatars (webcam deliberately only as an option), virtual implementation of familiar collaboration methods, data protection and security from Germany and much more. The synergy of these innovations creates ‘more space’ – for virtual collaboration, successful learning and efficient communication. Instead of adapting people to technology, we adapt technology to people. As a result, this leads to effective and highly interactive meetings, sustainable training and a team feeling despite physical distance. To summarise: virtual collaboration for the modern working world.