Onboarding Extended Reality

The purpose of this project is to lay the foundation for an extended research collaboration between Aalborg University and companies from the visual digital industry. The project aims to address the challenges associated with onboarding XR technologies in businesses and organizations that seek to enhance their digital transformation.

The goal is to develop new knowledge and technical proof-of-concept solutions that improve the onboarding process for XR technologies from both a user experience (UX) and an organizational perspective. From the UX perspective, the focus is on mapping design patterns and best practices, as well as developing concepts for standardization that can be applied across different XR cases. From an organizational perspective, the project seeks to identify the barriers preventing companies without prior XR experience from adopting and integrating these technologies. This includes establishing principles that make it easier for businesses to translate XR technologies into their strategic goals and reduce the need for high technical expertise among employees.

The project is evaluated from a strategic design perspective, focusing on how onboarding can be made technically feasible, organizationally comprehensible, and commercially relevant. The outcome should contribute to making XR productions more accessible to users across different application contexts and minimize the need to rethink interfaces and value propositions in each individual case.

This collaboration generates new knowledge in UX, organization, and strategic design and explores how these domains can be integrated to optimize the practical application of XR technologies.

This project brings Aalborg University and digital industry companies together to make it easier for businesses to adopt XR (extended reality) technologies. Many companies struggle to integrate XR because of technical complexity and lack of experience.

To solve this, the project will develop new knowledge and practical solutions to improve the onboarding process. It will explore how to make XR more user-friendly, identify common design patterns, and create guidelines that help businesses use XR without needing advanced technical skills.

The goal is to make XR technologies more accessible, easier to understand, and more useful for different industries, helping companies integrate them smoothly into their work.

1. Need for Structured Onboarding
The introduction of XR technologies highlights the need for well-developed onboarding processes for businesses, employees, and users.
A systematic framework that considers user tasks (customer jobs), benefits (gains), and challenges (pains) before addressing technical aspects improves XR adoption.

2. Business and Organizational Benefits
The framework helps businesses integrate XR into strategic processes and reduces uncertainty about return on investment (ROI).
Organizations gain insights into technological opportunities and onboarding approaches, reducing resistance to adoption and promoting sustainable XR implementation.

3. XR in Creative Industries
XR has significant potential for film, theater, gaming, design, architecture, and interactive art.
The structured onboarding approach ensures effective technology adoption, enhancing engagement for creative teams and audiences.
XR enables new narrative forms, allowing audiences to step into stories rather than just observing them.

4. Accessibility and User Segmentation
XR can democratize access to creative tools and experiences.
User segmentation based on skill level allows tailored onboarding, benefiting those with limited technical experience or special needs.
Features like voice-controlled interfaces and gaze-based navigation improve accessibility.

5. Economic and Business Model Potential
XR enhances the economic impact of creative industries by introducing new business models and products.
Structured onboarding reduces costs and complexity, crucial for small and medium-sized creative businesses with limited resources.

6. Maximizing XR’s Potential
Onboarding processes that emphasize usability, learning, and value creation help the creative sector fully leverage XR technologies.