We report a within-subjects study of the effect of realistic and cartoon avatars on communication, task satisfaction, and perceived sense of presence in mixed reality meetings. For 2 \u2212 3 weeks, six groups of co-workers (14 people) held a recurring real work meeting using Microsoft HoloLens2 devices. Each person embodied a personalised full-body avatar with a realistic face and another with a cartoon face. Half the groups started in the realistic condition and the other half started in the cartoon condition; all groups switched conditions half-way. Initial results show that, overall, participants found the realistic avatars\u2019 nonverbal behaviour more appropriate for the interaction and more useful for understanding their colleagues compared to the cartoon one. Regarding the\u00a0 results over time, we identify different insights for cartoon and realistic avatars based on the type of avatar was embodied first. We discuss the implications of these results for mixed and virtual\u00a0 reality meetings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We report a within-subjects study of the effect of realistic and cartoon avatars on communication, task satisfaction, and perceived sense of presence in mixed reality meetings. For 2 \u2212 3 weeks, six groups of co-workers (14 people) held a recurring real work meeting using Microsoft HoloLens2 devices. Each person embodied a personalised full-body avatar with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":824296,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","msr-author-ordering":null,"msr_publishername":"ACM","msr_publisher_other":"","msr_booktitle":"","msr_chapter":"","msr_edition":"","msr_editors":"","msr_how_published":"","msr_isbn":"","msr_issue":"","msr_journal":"","msr_number":"","msr_organization":"","msr_pages_string":"","msr_page_range_start":"","msr_page_range_end":"","msr_series":"","msr_volume":"","msr_copyright":"Georgiana Cristina Dobre, Marta Wilczkowiak, Marco Gillies, Xueni Pan, and Sean Rintel. 2022. Nice is Different than Good: Longitudinal Communicative Effects of Realistic and Cartoon Avatars in Real Mixed Reality Work Meetings. In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts (CHI \u201922 Extended Abstracts), April 29-May 5, 2022, New Orleans, LA, USA. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 9 pages. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/3491101.3519628","msr_conference_name":"CHI 2022","msr_doi":"","msr_arxiv_id":"","msr_s2_paper_id":"","msr_mag_id":"","msr_pubmed_id":"","msr_other_authors":"","msr_other_contributors":"","msr_speaker":"","msr_award":"","msr_affiliation":"","msr_institution":"","msr_host":"","msr_version":"","msr_duration":"","msr_original_fields_of_study":"","msr_release_tracker_id":"","msr_s2_match_type":"","msr_citation_count_updated":"","msr_published_date":"2022-4-1","msr_highlight_text":"","msr_notes":"","msr_longbiography":"","msr_publicationurl":"","msr_external_url":"","msr_secondary_video_url":"","msr_conference_url":"https:\/\/chi2022.acm.org\/","msr_journal_url":"","msr_s2_pdf_url":"","msr_year":0,"msr_citation_count":0,"msr_influential_citations":0,"msr_reference_count":0,"msr_s2_match_confidence":0,"msr_microsoftintellectualproperty":true,"msr_s2_open_access":false,"msr_s2_author_ids":[],"msr_pub_ids":[],"msr_hide_image_in_river":0,"footnotes":""},"msr-research-highlight":[],"research-area":[13554,13559],"msr-publication-type":[193716],"msr-publisher":[],"msr-focus-area":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-post-option":[],"msr-field-of-study":[248485,250612],"msr-conference":[],"msr-journal":[],"msr-impact-theme":[],"msr-pillar":[],"class_list":["post-824293","msr-research-item","type-msr-research-item","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","msr-research-area-human-computer-interaction","msr-research-area-social-sciences","msr-locale-en_us","msr-field-of-study-human-computer-interaction","msr-field-of-study-social-science"],"msr_publishername":"ACM","msr_edition":"","msr_affiliation":"","msr_published_date":"2022-4-1","msr_host":"","msr_duration":"","msr_version":"","msr_speaker":"","msr_other_contributors":"","msr_booktitle":"","msr_pages_string":"","msr_chapter":"","msr_isbn":"","msr_journal":"","msr_volume":"","msr_number":"","msr_editors":"","msr_series":"","msr_issue":"","msr_organization":"","msr_how_published":"","msr_notes":"","msr_highlight_text":"","msr_release_tracker_id":"","msr_original_fields_of_study":"","msr_download_urls":"","msr_external_url":"","msr_secondary_video_url":"","msr_longbiography":"","msr_microsoftintellectualproperty":1,"msr_main_download":"","msr_publicationurl":"","msr_doi":"","msr_publication_uploader":[{"type":"file","viewUrl":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Dobre-et-al-2022-AvatarAppearance-CHILBW-CameraReady.pdf","id":"824308","title":"dobre-et-al-2022-avatarappearance-chilbw-cameraready","label_id":"243132","label":0},{"type":"doi","viewUrl":"false","id":"false","title":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/3491101.3519628","label_id":"243106","label":0}],"msr_related_uploader":[{"type":"url","viewUrl":"false","id":"false","title":"https:\/\/files.sigchi.org\/conference\/attachment\/10072\/content\/73059\/poster\/b58e278c-de5d-925b-8b48-4db2221f4132.pdf","label_id":"243118","label":0}],"msr_citation_count":0,"msr_citation_count_updated":"","msr_s2_paper_id":"","msr_influential_citations":0,"msr_reference_count":0,"msr_arxiv_id":"","msr_s2_author_ids":[],"msr_s2_open_access":false,"msr_s2_pdf_url":null,"msr_attachments":[{"id":824308,"url":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Dobre-et-al-2022-AvatarAppearance-CHILBW-CameraReady.pdf"}],"msr-author-ordering":[{"type":"text","value":"Georgiana Cristina Dobre","user_id":0,"rest_url":false},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Marta Wilczkowiak (SHE\/HER)","user_id":43149,"rest_url":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Marta Wilczkowiak (SHE\/HER)"},{"type":"text","value":"Marco Gillies","user_id":0,"rest_url":false},{"type":"text","value":"Xueni Pan","user_id":0,"rest_url":false},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Sean Rintel","user_id":33579,"rest_url":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Sean Rintel"}],"msr_impact_theme":[],"msr_research_lab":[199561,734161],"msr_event":[],"msr_group":[],"msr_project":[984894,717493,686763,483294],"publication":[],"video":[],"msr-tool":[],"msr_publication_type":"inproceedings","related_content":{"projects":[{"ID":984894,"post_title":"Understanding Virtual & Hybrid Meetings","post_name":"understanding-virtual-hybrid-meetings","post_type":"msr-project","post_date":"2023-11-15 10:15:50","post_modified":"2026-03-24 16:35:39","post_status":"publish","permalink":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/project\/understanding-virtual-hybrid-meetings\/","post_excerpt":"Formative studies in distributed meeting behavior and technologies This is a collection of studies in distributed meeting behavior and technologies, covering virtual meetings, hybrid meetings, mobile robotic telepresence, and avatars. See Publications.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/984894"}]}},{"ID":717493,"post_title":"The New Future of Work","post_name":"the-new-future-of-work","post_type":"msr-project","post_date":"2021-01-25 07:40:51","post_modified":"2026-04-28 08:31:43","post_status":"publish","permalink":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/project\/the-new-future-of-work\/","post_excerpt":"This cross-company initiative is dedicated to creating solutions for a future of work that is meaningful, productive, and equitable. The focus has shifted from remote to hybrid to the role of artificial intelligence in changing work practices.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/717493"}]}},{"ID":686763,"post_title":"Meeting (the) Pandemic","post_name":"video-meetings-during-the-covid-19-pandemic","post_type":"msr-project","post_date":"2020-08-24 06:13:43","post_modified":"2026-03-24 16:37:17","post_status":"publish","permalink":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/project\/video-meetings-during-the-covid-19-pandemic\/","post_excerpt":"From March in 2020 Microsoft employees entered a prolonged period of mandatory working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We wondered what would happen to employees' effectiveness and collegiality as all meetings went remote. From April through August 2020 we recruited 849 employees to take part in a large scale study involving two month diaries and weekly polls.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/686763"}]}},{"ID":483294,"post_title":"Intentional Meetings","post_name":"intentional-meetings","post_type":"msr-project","post_date":"2020-02-13 04:03:50","post_modified":"2026-03-24 16:30:04","post_status":"publish","permalink":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/project\/intentional-meetings\/","post_excerpt":"Exploring how to make remote and hybrid telepresence meetings engaging, effective, adaptive, and inclusive.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/483294"}]}}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item\/824293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/msr-research-item"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item\/824293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1007940,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item\/824293\/revisions\/1007940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"msr-research-highlight","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-highlight?post=824293"},{"taxonomy":"msr-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-area?post=824293"},{"taxonomy":"msr-publication-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-publication-type?post=824293"},{"taxonomy":"msr-publisher","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-publisher?post=824293"},{"taxonomy":"msr-focus-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-focus-area?post=824293"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=824293"},{"taxonomy":"msr-post-option","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-post-option?post=824293"},{"taxonomy":"msr-field-of-study","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-field-of-study?post=824293"},{"taxonomy":"msr-conference","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-conference?post=824293"},{"taxonomy":"msr-journal","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-journal?post=824293"},{"taxonomy":"msr-impact-theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-impact-theme?post=824293"},{"taxonomy":"msr-pillar","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-pillar?post=824293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}