If your team is ready to get started—whether with a test group or the whole staff—one step you may want to take is providing some training. Inviting everyone to participate in a demo, planning a social event, or scheduling a tour of the office space are all great ways to get your office onboarding to Gather.
We recommend covering the following topics with your co-workers so everyone can learn the basics of navigation, communication, and customization in Gather.
- Creating your character
- Choosing audio and visual input
- Touring the office
- Decorating your desk
- Building your profile
- Talking with your co-workers
- Setting your status
Creating Your Character
The first step to entering any Gather Space is customizing the character that represents you in the Space. This is a fun way for staff to show their personality, whether that means dressing up as a pirate or changing their character's clothing and accessories to match whatever they're wearing that day.
Encourage staff to customize their character when entering the office.
You may give staff the option of using creative names (Mr. Pirate Pants anyone?), or you may ask staff to use their real name so new employees know who's who.
Tip: It's helpful to establish a standard of using first name + last initial or first name + preferred pronouns.
Choosing A/V Input
The "Check Your Hair" screen, as we call it, shows a preview of your avatar, a preview of your video feed (for you to check your hair, or lack thereof), and options for your camera, microphone, and speaker inputs.
Note: Our most popular KnowledgeBase article is A/V Troubleshooting, so be prepared to help your staff figure this out (or send them here to the help articles!).
The "Check Your Hair" screen shows a preview of your character and your video feed and lets you control your camera, mic, and speaker inputs.
Tip: Set clear expectations with staff on how often or when you expect them to be on camera.
By default, Gather turns off your video and audio feed when you navigate to another window. You may ask staff to turn Auto Idle Muting off to closely replicate the physical ability to just pop over to someone's desk to see them and say hi. To control this setting and to edit the options for camera, mic, or speakers, use Ctrl + P (Cmd + P for Macs) to open the User/Space Settings.
Touring the Office
Once everyone has created their character and is in the virtual office, take them on a tour of their new digs.
You can guide someone through the office by selecting their name on the Participants list, then selecting Request to Lead. They will receive a message previewing where you are and asking them if they'd like to follow you. If they accept your request, their character will automatically find you in the Space and attach to you so you can give them a hands-free tour. You can also have them follow you manually so they get the hang of using the W-A-S-D or arrow keys on the keyboard to move around. (Just be careful if you have portals to other rooms; make sure everyone is present and accounted for before proceeding onward in your tour.)
Show staff where their desks and team members are, as well as where the meeting rooms, co-working spots, and break rooms are.
Tip: Use wayfinding assets like arrows, colored/patterned rugs or furniture, signs, and labels to help staff understand the layout of your virtual office.
Decorating Your Desk
To help your team express themselves in Gather and build stronger personal relationships, you can claim your own desk and create a work environment as unique as your team members are! Along with customizing your own desk, the desk features allows you to interact with your coworkers, unlocking new ways to connect with one another.
All office members will have the ability to customize their own desks as long as those Private Areas are set as Desks. If you've used one of our office templates, the desks should be configured correctly by default.
Claiming a Desk
To claim a desk, an office member should hover over an empty desk area and click Claim. You might also consider assigning desks. To do that, hover over an empty desk area and click Invite teammates. Once a desk is claimed or assigned, that member's profile will be associated with that desk until it is unclaimed.
Customizing the Desk Area
Once a desk a claimed or assigned, the office member can customize it with the easy desk customization tool. This tool allows users to easily swap out rugs, desks, computers, and chairs to find the right style and match for them. If they want to add more objects, they can move over to the Build tab to find the full list of available objects.
Note: Office Members have the ability to add objects from the Object Picker, but they will not be able to edit anything from the Mapmaker unless they have the Builder role.
Customize your desk to make it yours. Just hover over your desk and click Customize.
Tip: Hold a Best Decorated contest during staff's first week in the virtual office or during holidays.
Building Your Profile
After you've claimed your desk, hover over it to and click on Profile. From here, you can tell your co-workers all about yourself including your location, birthday, start date, and contact information. You can even upload pictures to help people get to know you better. This profile moves with you even if you move desks.
Talking with Your Co-Workers
Perhaps the best part of Gather is the natural communication it fosters. Unlike other tools, you don't have to stop what you're doing, check your calendar against your co-workers, and figure out a time that might work best for you to meet. Instead, you just walk over to someone's desk to start a conversation, or you sit in a co-working area to instantly collaborate. Alternatively, you can hop into a private area and chat one-on-one or with your team without disturbing the work of those around you. Gather has several cool features that support effortless communication.
A/V Proximity
If you're within 5 tiles of someone, you connect to their A/V feed. As you walk closer to them, you hear and see them more clearly until you are having a regular video chat with them, just like real life. With this feature, Gather reproduces the experience of running into a co-worker in the hallway or standing together in a group waiting for the microwave in the break room.
Private Areas
The best offices have many well-marked private areas throughout them. Private areas allow staff to communicate only with the other people who are in the same private area with them. Therefore, if you're at your desk or in the diner at a table for two that's a private area, you can have a conversation without worrying whether you're disrupting someone else's conversation or quiet time.
Follow
You will likely cover this during your office tour, but to have a hand's free journey through the office, you can click on a co-worker and follow them. The Follow feature is especially handy when providing tours or when you want to maintain a conversation while you're moving through the Space.
Locate on Map
If you need to talk with someone and they're not at their desk, you can open the Participants panel and click on their name, then select Locate on map. A dynamic line displays, which you can follow to wherever that person is within the Space.
Wave
Hover over a co-workers desk when they're available to send them a Wave. This is a great way to send a quick hello in the morning or to see if someone is free for you to swing by and have a quick conversation.
Notes
Want to recognize a job well done with an appreciative note? Maybe recognize someone's birthday or work anniversary? You can drop a note or gift on someone's desk! As long as they've claimed a desk, you only need to hover over their desk and click Leave Note. You have a number of different types of notes to choose from to help you recognize all the special moments in our work journeys. If you want to note to be automatically cleaned up, toggle on the option by clicking on the gear icon before dropping the note.
Emotes
A quick way to say hi or respond to a comment in a conversation or meeting is to use Gather's Emotes in the Bottom Action Bar (or just use the keyboard shortcuts with the 1-6 keys).
Bubble
Use bubbles to have a quick conversation with a coworker by right or double clicking on their character and selecting Start Bubble. People outside your bubble will still be able to hear you, but very softly (and with transparent video). People can join and leave bubbles freely, even across private spaces.
Do Not Disturb
If staff need to get some head's down work done, they can use Do Not Disturb (Ctrl/Cmd + U). With Do Not Disturb on, your status light next to your name turns red, and won't be able to hear or speak to others in the office. This is great for when you step away from your desk or take a meeting outside of Gather.
Ghost Mode
If someone wants to walk through a Space without disrupting other people's conversations, they can use Ghost Mode (press or hold "g"). In Ghost Mode, you can simply walk through people (this is also handy if an entrance is clogged when heading to or from a meeting).
Setting Your Status
Your team may choose to use the status feature to keep each other informed about their activities (or moods!).
To add or edit your status, click on your name in the Bottom Action Bar. The Bottom Action Menu opens, with an Add text status field. This status displays under the staff's name in the Participants panel.
Encourage staff to set their statuses. The status displays beneath the person's name in the Participants pane.
Tip: Recently used statuses show in a drop-down list when you begin typing in the Add text status field.
Troubleshooting
Be prepared to help staff troubleshoot if necessary. We've created a simple Troubleshooting Checklist that lists steps to try. It links to other articles and to the glossary for further details. Remember, you can always Report a bug or reach out to us at support@gather.town as well!
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