The Metaverse for everyone – Qualitative insights on virtual reality environments and the perception of inclusion in team collaboration

Abstract

• Five key dimensions enable inclusion in Collaborative Metaverse environments: immersion, belonging, authenticity, emotions, self-efficacy. • Avatar design, room layout, and technology shape team members' sense of belonging in Collaborative Metaverse spaces. • Three Collaborative Metaverse design tensions yield nine actionable implications for avatar, room, and technology configurations. • Inclusive Collaborative Metaverse design increases engagement, team cohesion, and competitive advantage. Organizations face socio-technical challenges in developing an inclusive collaborative metaverse. Virtual rooms and avatar representations can unintentionally exclude users by reinforcing stereotypes, increasing cognitive load, or constraining participation, thereby undermining interaction quality, belonging, and authenticity as core components of perceived inclusion. Through qualitative analyses of 24 participants from eight VR teams, we identify five dimensions for inclusion: immersion, belonging, authenticity, emotions, and self-efficacy, and link them to three design perspectives: avatar representation, room design, and collaboration technology. This uncovers three socio-technical tension patterns: anonymity vs. authenticity, clarity vs. immersion, accessibility vs. functionality. Building on these tensions, we derive implications for design that are grounded in theories of social presence and belonging and translate into actionable design heuristics for Collaborative Metaverse systems. Our tension-based framework drives research on inclusion in the Collaborative Metaverse. Strategically, it offers organizations concrete guidance on how to configure the Collaborative Metaverse to support inclusive participation and avoid design decisions that inadvertently exclude parts of the workforce.