I said this last time and I'll bring it up again: quality of equipment is not the problem, poor UX design is the problem.
1. We still don't share a common digital space when having meetings, because everyone sees tiles in a different order. "Let's go around the table and give our updates!" Uh, in what order? There is a lot of power in the subtle social cues available when everyone knows who you are talking (or listening) to by shifting towards them.
2. There's still no effective way to non-verbally signal that someone wants to speak. If everyone was push-to-talk, then holding down the unmute button would let the UI emphasize your tile and signal to others. This would cut down on verbally stepping on each other. Nobody uses those "raise hand" buttons, because they are too single-purpose and relatively high effort.
3. Often, there's no way to tell at a glance if you're muted. I can't believe Zoom still does this: you have to move your mouse to get it to show you the UI. Why are you hiding the UI.
4. What is the point of reactions appearing on your own tile? You're not talking: nobody is looking at you. Reactions should appear on the tile you are reacting to!
It's small things like this that make video calls a mess, and nothing's changed since the beginning of the pandemic except for video filters.
> If everyone was push-to-talk, then holding down the unmute button would let the UI emphasize your tile and signal to others.
The most baffling thing to me is how common it is for video conferencing systems to either lack a push to talk system or just have a really really bad one. I agree this would CVS fantastic but they’ve gotta actually put it in first.
I find it odd too. VOIP services for gaming have been doing it a long time. It seems most people only unmute when they're speaking anyway, don't know why the big conferencing solutions leave it out.
This is all true, but not actionable. OP was speaking to consumers about things they can do within their control, and for that purpose it’s a great post.
What I'm getting at is that consumers throwing money at the problem will not solve the fundamental issues. You'll have a 4k webcam with brilliant audio, and you'll still have trouble getting a word in.
I agree with you that there's a trillion-dollar bill just laying on the ground for the first videoconferencing company which embraces the medium, instead of striving for the impossible impression that everyone is in the 'same place at the same time'.
It's orthogonal to having decent gear, however. Using a flattering aperture and a sensor with adequate sensitivity, not to mention a real microphone, will create a positive impression in a mostly invisible way, and building software which isn't painful to use would magnify this effect rather than flatten it.
#2 - we use Meet at work and use of the hand-raising feature is widespread. The only problem is that the accompanying noise is too intrusive: many people stop talking when they hear it, such that it’s almost the same as interrupting someone.
Yeah it's also very analogous to literally raising your hand in a classroom. Absolutely nobody does that when talking with a group of friends, and yet everyone knows when someone wants to get a quick word in!
> 3. Often, there's no way to tell at a glance if you're muted. I can't believe Zoom still does this: you have to move your mouse to get it to show you the UI. Why are you hiding the UI.
Did they change this recently? On Windows I always see an icon on the lower left corner showing that I'm muted without having to move my mouse or show the controls. I do prefer to go into the options and enable the Always show controls setting under General just so I have a bigger indicator. I think pressing Alt also toggles the controls.
> There's still no effective way to non-verbally signal that someone wants to speak
Some tools have a raise hand feature. Though not sure if it brings such users to the top of the participant list or otherwise highlights them beyond an icon.
My team does this really well. If you have something to say, put a finger up. If you see someone else with a finger up, put up two. Or three, or whatever, so it's a queue. Which is a good indicator to the current speaker how soon they need to do talking. If you need to interject, we have another hand signal. We also have signals for "I agree" / "+1", "ouch", "pause", etc.
1. We still don't share a common digital space when having meetings, because everyone sees tiles in a different order. "Let's go around the table and give our updates!" Uh, in what order? There is a lot of power in the subtle social cues available when everyone knows who you are talking (or listening) to by shifting towards them.
2. There's still no effective way to non-verbally signal that someone wants to speak. If everyone was push-to-talk, then holding down the unmute button would let the UI emphasize your tile and signal to others. This would cut down on verbally stepping on each other. Nobody uses those "raise hand" buttons, because they are too single-purpose and relatively high effort.
3. Often, there's no way to tell at a glance if you're muted. I can't believe Zoom still does this: you have to move your mouse to get it to show you the UI. Why are you hiding the UI.
4. What is the point of reactions appearing on your own tile? You're not talking: nobody is looking at you. Reactions should appear on the tile you are reacting to!
It's small things like this that make video calls a mess, and nothing's changed since the beginning of the pandemic except for video filters.