Long-Term Experiences From Working with Extended Reality in the Wild

2025-09-05

AI Summary

Existing XR research is predominantly confined to controlled laboratory settings, lacking ecological validity and longitudinal evidence of real-world usage. This study addresses this gap by conducting a multi-month field investigation—comprising in-depth ethnographic interviews with professionals using advanced XR devices (e.g., Apple Vision Pro) as productivity tools in authentic workplace environments. Employing qualitative user experience analysis, we systematically evaluate long-term adaptability, sustained adoption barriers, and practical efficacy across three dimensions: workflow integration, maturity of native application ecosystems, and system-level customization capabilities. Results indicate that while users gradually improve operational proficiency and achieve localized productivity gains, persistent limitations—including scarce native professional applications, frequent cross-platform workflow disruptions, and insufficient low-level system customization—hinder broader utility. This work constitutes the first high-ecological-validity, longitudinal empirical study of XR in professional contexts, providing critical evidence to inform next-generation hardware design and enterprise deployment strategies.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: User Experience and Usability
• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Intelligent Robots: Multimodal Perception & Sensor Fusion

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Web applications in cross-disciplinary domains and verticals such as mixed reality, smart cities, and digital health
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Practical large-scale studies of user experience
• Responsible Web: Human-perceived consequences of algorithmic deployment on the web

Abstract

Extended Reality (XR) is increasingly used as a productivity tool and recent commercial XR devices have even been specifically designed as productivity tools, or, at least, are heavily advertised for such purposes, such as the Apple Vision Pro (AVP), which has now been available for more than one year. In spite of what marketing suggests, research still lacks an understanding of the long-term usage of such devices in ecologically valid everyday settings, as most studies are conducted in very controlled environments. Therefore, we conducted interviews with ten AVP users to better understand how experienced users engage with the device, and which limitations persist. Our participants report that XR can increase productivity and that they got used to the device after some time. Yet, a range of limitations persist that might hinder the widespread use of XR as a productivity tool, such as a lack of native applications, difficulties when integrating XR into current workflows, and limited possibilities to adapt and customize the XR experience.

Problem

• Understanding long-term XR usage in everyday settings
• Identifying persistent limitations of XR productivity tools
• Exploring user adaptation and workflow integration challenges

Innovation

• Conducted interviews with Apple Vision Pro users
• Studied long-term XR usage in everyday settings
• Identified productivity limitations and integration challenges