

Steelcase Virtual Workspace
Steelcase creates innovative furniture designs and asked us to explore the future of collaborative design and production process. Throughout the VR workspace the user can set up remote meetings for realtime collaborations with swappable environments, create individual design spaces, and experience their designs in augmented reality. We incorporated an AR feature that allowed users to view their designs in the physical world. Additionally we tracked a physical chair and mapped its exact dimensions onto a virtual chair, allowing users to manipulate and "sit" on their virtual chair. This created an opportunity to combine virtual and physical reality in the design process.
HTC Vive / Maya / Unity / Photoshop
Steelcase Virtual Workspace
Director
Scott Fisher
Producer
Scott Fisher
Perry Hoberman
Joshua Schultz
Experience Designer
Max Kreminski
Maryyann Landlord
Keshav Prasad
Interaction Designer
Mike Koziowski
Max Kreminski
Concept Development
Joshua Schultz
Keshav Prasad
Maryyann Landlord
3D Artist
Maryyann Landlord
3D Printing
Biayna Bagosian
Process
workspace design study: mixing chemicals to combine materials
workspace design study: persistent thought clouds
workspace design study: writting letters on paper planes to send messages
The design space started from the Steelcase chair. What kind of workspaces would be useful, practical, and whimsical attached to your chair? To design for a personal space, we needed to test out designs in person as quickly as possible. I sketched out several concepts in Quill and implemented the designs into Unity. Working with our 3D printing specialist, Biayna Bagosian, we attached motion tracking to a physcial Steelcase chair while having the designs hooked to a virtual chair. This method allowed us to physically sit in the chair and move in physical space, while accessing my workspace designs.
Building ontop of these prototypes, we experimented with the idea of a multiuser collaborative workspace that involved designers working from across the nation. After talking with several of the designers about their work process, we decided to focus on 4 major design tools in this experience - grabber, marker, mic, explode.
I modeled this designs in Maya before bringing them into Unity. At first I attached each tool tip to the virtual Vive controllers directly. But after several playtests, I realized that tool tips were getting lost in the objects they interacted with. I added an extension to each tool tip to accomodate for this.
design fiction ; future AR workspaces

tooltips for VR design workspace
We wanted to expand the concept of "workspace" into AR. First, I brainstormed several design fiction scenarios in which AR could be utilized, such as sending AR GIFs to friends in a classroom, or using AR to order food at a restaurant. I decided to further explore the restaurant idea because there was potential for several layers of public and private spaces in AR.
I painted a 3D environment in AnimVR to visualize uses of AR in a future world. What are public vs private workspaces? Imagine a couple planning their next vacation in a private AR space, shared only on their devices. Next a waiter comes to take their order, showing them their 3D dishes in AR. This could be available to the couple and the waiter, but not the rest of the restaurant. Another layer of privacy. But perhaps the numbers in which each table will recieve their order is available to all the customers in the restaurant. A customer can see when they will be served. This becomes a public layer only to the people in the restaurant. In other words, location-based privacy.
AR Workspace




