Spectator Mode User Stories for 2D Redesign

[misslivirose]

As part of the work related to #3050, we are considering the use cases about how to design the spectator mode flow for a Hubs room. In our product design sync, we discussed first outlining the scenarios in which a user might want to be in spectator mode, and its features.

Background on Spectator Mode Each Hubs room has the concept of the 'lobby' of the room, where visitors can see and hear what is happening in the room. They can also communicate with others via chat, but are not represented in the space as an avatar and are not connected to outgoing voice channels. The original goal of the lobby was to provide context so that when a user enters a space, they can get acclimated to who is in the room before being considered fully 'present'.

Spectator mode was added in https://github.com/mozilla/hubs/pull/1376 based on the following feedback:

• Some users preferred to experience something happening in a room from a non-embodied state (for example, if they were watching a presentation in a room or multi-tasking) so they remained in the lobby the entire time

• Events wanted a greater capacity for visitors, and did not always care if those visitors were represented as avatars

• Some use cases (for example, a panel presentation) wanted a mechanic to allow only panelists in a room, but have the audience watch without being able to be physically present and interfere with what was happening in the room

Spectator mode hides the majority of the lobby UI and displays a message that indicates that a user is in the lobby. As we approach the design in #3050, we will also need to consider the design for spectator mode. When a user is spectating, there are still some UI elements that remain.

Users also may watch from spectator mode when the room capacity is reached. but by default will remain in the lobby with the 'enter room' flow unavailable to them.

Considerations

• How do we surface to the user that they are in spectator mode, and allow them to understand what that means in terms of what they are able to do? Some suggestions have included having a border around the screen that differentiates being in spectator mode from being present in a room

• How do we present spectator mode as an option for users as part of the room entry flow?

• What information might a user want to know about the state of the room while they're spectating? (e.g. do they want to know if a room is full and a spot becomes available? Is chat always visible?)

Additional notes By default, spectators and lobby visitors cannot move their view around. Hubs Cloud administrators have the ability to enable movement with the 'lobby ghost' feature. #https://github.com/mozilla/hubs/pull/2174

┆Issue is synchronized with this Jira Task

[misslivirose]

Tagging @mbransn as an FYI

[mbransn]

This is great, thanks @misslivirose -- @malqinneh let me know if you have any questions on this, IMO this is an additional UX improvement that can be worked through as part of the ongoing UI update.