Where's the Team Spirit? An Exploratory Study on Team Development Through Co-located Tablet-Based VR

Fig. 1. Illustrative collaboration scenario: one player retrieves distances to constellations (left and middle) based on the description provided by the other player (right).

We explore how narrative-driven asymmetric VR experiences can support the development of teamwork-related knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs), such as communication, coordination, trust, and reflexivity. We present the design and evaluation of a tablet-based VR training experience structured around spatial separation, tool asymmetry, and interdependent tasks that require verbal coordination. The experience was designed based on interviews with HR professionals and mapped to a framework of established KSAs. We conducted a co-located user study (N=16) that involved two consecutive collaborative scenarios. Our findings show that users adapted dynamically using verbal exchange, role negotiation, and shared representations to coordinate under asymmetric conditions. We also observed active application of teamwork KSAs. Based on our insights, we present design recommendations for creating effective immersive team training interventions.