5 Tips to Maximise User Engagement

5 Tips to Maximise User Engagement

Tip 1 - Use movement to drive engagement

One of the great strengths of iSee is the power it gives people to choose where they go, who they talk to and what they interact with. To harness this strength for better engagement during structured activities - include movement as part of the activity.

Including movement keeps people engaged by giving them a series of small achievable tasks and rewards attention.

Examples of including movement during a structured but interactive class might be:

  • Asking people to turn to the person beside them and discuss a question or issue for 1 minute

  • Getting people to jump if they agree with a particular perspective, have a response to a question or want to ask a question

  • Having people run to a place that corresponds to their answer to a multiple choice question

 

If you want people to gather in certain places or do specific tasks, then focus on clear communication. A usual custom when getting the attention of people is to ensure they are looking at you before delivering the message. A challenge here is that the megaphone mode in iSee is not currently directional, so you will need to help people to identify you. One of the easiest ways to do this is to jump up on something so that you are easily seen, and then tell everyone where to look. If the area is flat, then add a table and use it as a temporary stage. Help people by giving references to fixed features in the environment e.g. "face the stage so I can see your smiling faces".

 

Tip 2 - Harness curiosity

It should be no surprise that users are curious about iSee worlds and the other people in them. Take the time, especially at the start of a class or event, to let people great each other and build relationships. If people are meeting for the first time it may even be worthwhile to develop some ice breaker games to help people meet and get interacting freely.  

Harnessing that curiosity is a great way of overcoming the apprehension that many new users feel. Ice breaker games that include exploring the virtual environments or the lives of others are a great way to help users become familiar with the basic mechanics of moving around and interacting in iSee worlds.

Great ice breaker games may include:​

  • Teams orienteering - small groups follow a series of clues placed around the space

  • Challenge groups to jump on top of each other and build the highest tower

  • Learning a simple line dance  

  • Ideas speed dating (can be 'learn three things about you', 'do I like your idea' or 'fusion pitch' where you create a new product idea that fusses each of your interests)

 

Tip 3 - Facilitate participation

iSee is your ultimate tool for increasing participation if you use it effectively. To do that, think less about what you bring to a session and more about what you want others to take from the session. Your job is to develop activities that let people build those outcomes for themselves by engaging and working with others.

Some great ways of increasing participation include:

  • group activities

  • short buzz sessions with open answer questions

  • parallel pitch fest sessions for ideas

  • poster viewing/discussion sessions

 

Tip 4 - Unstructured time can be important

Unstructured time can be some of the most productive. This is especially true if ideas or relationships are at their initial stages.

iSee is the ideal online platform for relationship and ideas building because it allows for many conversations to happen in parallel. Rather than being passive, iSee engages people in making choices about who to talk to and what to talk about. This is the investment that initiates any relationship.

It also allows for ideas to be shared, tested and built on at an informal level, allowing them to grow organically and gain team support. This is an essential incubation step that initiates the innovation pathway.

To get the best out of your longer structured iSee experiences, schedule breaks for networking and informal discussion throughout the session just as you would in a normal face to face event.

 

Tip 5 - Change the view position for a better experience

Typing 1, 2 or 3 on your keyboard selects different views in iSee which can be really helpful in improving your iSee experience.

View 1: is the default 1st person view where you look directly from the point of view of your iSee presence. This is the best view for talking to others and helps with eye contact and other intuitive non-verbal communication cues.

View 2: looks forward from a raised position behind your own shoulder. This is the best view when in a crowd and trying to see a board or speaker in front of you that is obscured by those in front of you. If you are running a session where this might be the case, give gentle reminder to the other users that this will help them see the presentation. You might also need to remind them to go back to View 1 for the best experience when talking to others.

View 3: looks directly back at yourself. This is helpful when people first enter iSee to help them understand how they appear to others in the iSee world. It can also be a useful tool when giving a presentation if you want to both face the audience while looking at a presentation board behind you.

 

Tips & Tricks