In 2020, office life switched abruptly towards a remote work model. Office meetings have since moved to virtual spaces. Unfortunately, remote video meetings have become associated with declines in engagement, collaboration, and learning, as well as ‘Zoom fatigue’. In this article, we study the potential of virtual reality (VR) technology as a solution to these problems and as a medium to enrich remote work environments. For seven weeks, we collected data on the meetings of a team of eighteen knowledge workers. For five of those weeks, the meetings were organized in VR. We used a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods to gather feedback on those sessions and to compare them with a regular video conferencing baseline. Our results demonstrate that both technologies have applications in the work environment—albeit in different situations. We provide best-practice guidelines for the use of VR by remote teams and present design implications for VR collaborative spaces.

We investigated how product attributes, average consumer ratings, and single affect-rich positive or negative consumer reviews influenced hypothetical online purchasing decisions of younger and older adults. In line with previous research, we found that younger adults used all three types of information: they clearly preferred products with better attributes and with higher average consumer ratings. If making a choice was difficult because it involved trade-offs between product attributes, most younger adults chose the higher-rated product. The preference for the higher-rated product, however, could be overridden by a single affect-rich negative or positive review. Older adults were strongly influenced by a single affect-rich negative review and also took into consideration product attributes; however, they did not take into account average consumer ratings or single affect-rich positive reviews. These results suggest that older adults do not consider aggregated consumer information and positive reviews focusing on positive experiences with the product, but are easily swayed by reviews reporting negative experiences.

In this paper we provide a brief summary of development LivingLab PJAIT as an attempt to establish a comprehensive and sustainable ICT-based solution for empowerment of elderly communities towards better urban participation of seniors. We report on our various endeavors for better involvement and participation of older adults in urban life by lowering ICT barriers, encouraging social inclusion, intergenerational interaction, physical activity and engaging older adults in the process of development of ICT solutions. We report on a model and assumptions of the LivingLab PJAIT as well as a number of activities created and implemented for LivingLab participants: from ICT courses, both traditional and e-learning, through on-line crowdsourcing tasks, to blended activities of different forms and complexity. We also provide conclusions on the lessons learned in the process and some future plans, including solutions for better senior urban participation and citizen science.