Exploring Avatar-Based Representations of Desktop Analytical Workflows for Asymmetric Collaborative Visual Analytics

Abstract

Collaborative visual analytics increasingly occurs across asymmetric desktop-VR settings, with desktop analysis offering precision and efficiency and VR providing spatial and embodied affordances. However, maintaining workspace awareness remains challenging because desktop collaborators are often represented in VR only through indirect cues such as perspective sharing, shared visualization state, or lightweight cursor traces, which do not convey their ongoing analytical activity in a VR-native manner. To address this gap, we present Desk2Avatar, which explores avatar-based representations of desktop analytical workflows in VR. We introduce two representation strategies, Distanced and Embodied, inspired by remote pointing and direct manipulation. We conducted a within-subject study with 18 participants comparing these strategies against a depth-adaptive cursor baseline. Our findings show that avatar-based representations improved collaborator awareness and attentional guidance over cursor cues, while excessive embodiment introduced occlusion, distraction, and additional workload. Finally, we discuss design implications for future desktop-to-VR representations, focusing on balancing collaborator presence, attentional guidance, and workspace readability.