 Georgia is a seasoned user research and has specialized in the Web3 and crypto space for the last five years. She works for tooling, wallets, DeFi, NFTs, DAOs and gaming clients to help them understand the users and build better products and establish the user research DAO, a collective of UX research experts dedicated to elevating the quality and quantity of user research being conducted in the Web3 space. So welcome and please give it up to the speaker. Thanks for having me. You can hear me okay. Yeah. Cool. All right. Hola. Buenos tardes. I'm Georgia Rackerson. I'm a user researcher. Thank you for the great intro. I'd like to get a quick sense from those in the room. Who has played in the metaverse as a user? Oh, quite a few. Okay. And it's anyone building in the metaverse here? Good. All right. Both. Excellent. So I'm going to share some of the research findings from a recent study that I've conducted into the experiences of early adopters in the metaverse and then what happened afterwards. And just for clarification, when I use the word metaverse, I did a quick word count. I'm going to use it 61 times in this presentation. I'm specifically meaning the Web3 enabled metaverse experiences that exist right now. Things like decentralized crypto voxels, spatial, the sandbox, et cetera. Not the non Web3 enabled metaverse things like Minecraft, Roblox, VR chat, Meta's Horizon as well. Okay. Great. So a little bit of background for you. Earlier this year, Protocol Labs commissioned a big study on the experiences of metaverse users. And the objectives of this research were to uncover the characteristics of early metaverse users, identify the meaningful experiences and user pains, surface opportunities for platform improvements and deep dive on themes of identity, ownership and portability. So we interviewed 16 users, all existing metaverse users in these kind of in-depth one-hour interviews. And the research is now at the survey stage. And the full results will be made public, available later this year. But I'm going to share a few learnings from that study with you. So from the research, we mapped how people first encountered the metaverse and what affected whether they became a regular user or not. And early adopters fall into like four main camps. They're either just inquisitive people. They want to get ahead of new tech trends. It's really up their street. Creatives, people looking for new outlets for work. Investors, those are folks who are maybe already in the NFT space. And people already working in Web 3. And the triggers for getting started in the metaverse really vary for these different people. So it could be that they've introduced to it by another person that they know, hearing about the term in the media or being driven by the opportunity to make money. So though NFTs go hand in hand with the metaverse, there were some who, in our pool of participants, who came to it totally fresh. They had no knowledge of Web 3 or NFT. And the metaverse was their first Web 3 experience. And whether users continue, once they try it, depends on whether they experienced a wow moment early on. So wow moments might be social engagements or realizing the creative or earning opportunity. These users move pretty quickly then from just trying it out to becoming quite active. But some people have really negative first-time experiences. They might be put off by the quality of the graphics. If you've played it, you may have a sense of that. Or from not discovering positive social engagement. Those users just don't come back. So there was an assumption going into this research that all of these early adopters were going to be gamers. Gaming is the really big use case for the metaverse. We're not there yet. Gaming in the metaverse just can't compete with the Web 2 experience. And early metaverse adopters are quite likely to be in a stage of life where they have less time for serious gaming. So a lot of earlier adopters are millennials. So some of them actually have children who are playing Minecraft right now, give you a sense of who these people are. And they have other priorities other than grinding in play-to-earn games. So a lot of them had never played any play-to-earn games. But their nostalgia for that formative gaming experience and nostalgia for the early internet does impact how they perceive and react to the metaverse. So gaming in their youth during the emergence of online forums in the early 2000s, I'm sure some people can, this resonates with them, is prepared then for what actually being in the metaverse is like now, the convergence of 3D virtual world and social media. And this user spells it out great. To me, the metaverse is the ultimate social platform. It reminds me of AOL chat in the 90s. But now you have visuals and tokens attached to it. It's an improvement on life. So those who are looking for AAA game quality are not going to find it right now. And they are disappointed in the graphics. It's enough of a turn-off and the playability. It's enough of a turn-off for them just not to come back ever again. So it's likely that committed gamers are just not going to be into this space until these experiences vastly improve. So from the pool of people that we spoke to, it's not gaming that brings them, what is it? The ability to find your tribe and create shared connections is really, really powerful. This user was a DJ who ended up quitting his full-time desk job to work in the metaverse. He said, I've spawned a lot of meaningful relationships. It holds tremendous value to me. It's stuff I wouldn't be doing in real life that I've always longed to do. It's hard to go out there and make friends. In my job, nobody shared the same interests as me. The metaverse is an easy way to focus in on a group that has similar interests and then continue those relationships even outside of the metaverse. So social connections make the metaverse really sticky, but hand-holding is essential for that positive first experience. So we heard that if users have someone to show them the ropes right at the beginning, they're more likely to work through the hassle of getting started, which might be overcoming reservations that they have about it in the first place, working out how to move their avatar around, all of that kind of the growing pains, really, of getting started. And they end up on this fast track to those wow moments that keep them coming back again and again. For people without anyone they know to hand-hold them, they can feel lost. And it's unclear to them where they should go and what activities match their interests. So a question for those who are building metaverse experiences right now, how can you fast track users to those meaningful experiences, and is the hand-holding you're doing now optimal? The path from Explorer to full-time creator in the metaverse is really short. I was surprised how fast some of these people went from, like, zero to I've quit my normal job and now I work only in the metaverse. There's quite a lot of them. And that's testament to the success of Web3 is a way for people to monetise new ways of being creative. And it's also testament to the fact that metaverse platforms are showcases for what can be achieved. So this user was a professional artist in real life who's invited to display their work in the metaverse for the first time. And he said, I could see my art virtually on the gallery walls. It looked stunning. This would cost $10,000 to display in a gallery in real life. And here I am doing it for free. A collector had questions and everyone in the space could read my answer. I only had to answer one question once. At gallery shows I have to answer the same question 70 times and still make it seem like it was the first time the question was asked. That, for me, was like the golden wow moment. But there is a challenge, of course. So many of these people have no prior Web3 knowledge. So they have this really steep learning curve in order to on board, learning about wallets, NFTs, a whole bunch of new concepts. So how are these platforms actually supporting Web3 newcomers with all of this learning? So as I was writing up the findings for this research, I reflected on my own personal experience of having used the metaverse. And honestly I'd only used it once. I dipped my toes in. I think it was for an ETH global event like some years ago. I tried it. I remember feeling lost. Not really feeling like it was for me. Being unsure what the etiquette was and I kind of found the experience a bit scary. But after doing these interviews, it got me wondering, could you do research in the metaverse? Could you study user behaviors, motivations and culture by immersing yourself into the virtual world? So I had some initial reservations and for those of you who are researchers in the room, you'll be thinking, well, usually when you're in the room, you don't know what's going on around you. Thankfully, a much bigger brain than mine has written a lot about this topic. So I consulted the Bible on ethnography. It's called ethnography by Robert Kuznetz. So ethnography is qualitative social media research. It's an adaptation of ethnography, which is the study of people and their behaviors. But instead of going to physically to where they are, all of that is online. It's focused on human experiences and cultural understanding, not product UX research is not the focus for it. And it's informed by a sense of self-awareness of the researcher. It's not spying on what your users are doing in public forums, watching from a distance. It's not that. It's researching at the same time as actually participating in the culture. You can think of it like action research. So it involves watching what is going on, collecting lots of data. That could be screen shots, links, anything, video, as well as immersion by the researcher into the space that they're researching. And reflecting on their own role in that process as well. And then interpreting all of that information and answering research questions. Now, most of this book, which I do recommend, it's like quite a big book, it is a good read though. Most of it explores really this method around traditional social life. There's very little reference to virtual worlds. However, someone has done their own ethnographic study of Second Life. The author, Tom Bollstorf, spent two years doing it. I realized I didn't have that much time. So I just wanted to get a taste for what this method was like and whether it's useful for other people to do it too. So what does it look like in reality? So the researcher keeps field notes, like a journal. They're focused on social behaviors. And the researcher is writing what's happening and how they feel. And they reflect on their own role in the experience as well. Now, there are some very important ethical considerations for doing this type of study. There's this concept known as the consent gap. If you think about it, all of us do it. Many people are always sharing information about themselves and that they're consenting for their data to be used in research. So an ethical ethnographer needs to make their intentions known to the people that they're studying. You can't go undercover, basically. Another thing I needed to consider was that I'm studying Web3 people and I know that they're really privacy conscious. So I needed to be extra careful about what I share in my research findings. Not everyone I interacted with with. So I'm being overly cautious on that front. So with some trepidation, I set up a page for myself on Notion describing what the research was about. I would then add the link to that in my bio in the Metaverse platforms and direct people to that if they wanted to know more. I updated my Twitter profile to say what I was doing and then I began observing. And I started on Twitter, Reddit, Discord, following different Metaverse platforms before finally ending up in Decentraland. So I created my avatar. There she is. In order to adhere to the ethnographic method, I made sure I looked somewhat like myself and I also called myself G-Rack Researcher. Just so there was no ambiguity where people would recognize me. And I spent many hours doing this work. I kept a journal and what I'm going to do now is read some text. I went to the Decentraland events page, chose a game and teleported there. There are about 30 or so people, their avatars all stood around in groups, but not appearing to be doing anything. I tried to work out how the game works, which was tricky. I wondered how everyone else managed it. I felt a bit stupid and wondered whether I was the only new person to the game. Without any helpful prompts I had no response. I had no response. Many people were up for surface level conversations, but when I asked a research question, I had no response, which felt very disheartening. It made me feel that my approach of asking people up front questions was wrong. I noted how others were welcoming people they knew using Web3 signifiers like GM to one another. Looking around, everyone else was in very flashy outfits . Later I followed the coordinate someone posted for a live music venue. I teleported there and the atmosphere was immediately totally different. I entered the venue and there was a live band I hadn't heard of streaming their performance into the venue. My name, G-Rack Researcher sparked some interest and people asked me what I was researching. I noted in the text chat that some people share their real life with people to find commonality. Looking at what I'm wearing compared to everyone else, it seems dressing to be a likeness of myself is unnecessary for Web3. A player's name feels far more important for avatar recognition. Just as in real life, you can't just jump in with questions for people you don't know, you have to do some social lubrication to get people to warn to you. After participating in the rituals by name to the event space, people began to ask me questions and this became a great opener. When I explained what I was working on, people were very positive towards it and offered to connect me to other people who might share their experiences. In my earlier observations, I saw how sharing screenshots of activities in the metaverse on social media is a really common activity. While I was at the event, the band encouraged people to tweet screenshots so I went ahead and got a vocal shout out from the band that felt very validating and enforced a sense of multi-platform immediacy. I noted how this multi-platform experience requires a lot of multitasking. I wonder how many browser tabs all the other users have open. Once the event finished, someone in the text chat told me to check OpenSea for a show app, which I'd not heard of before. Thankfully, they told me where to find it in the OpenSea interface on my own. I didn't ask this question, they preempted it, which suggests to me they've helped others with the same problem. This person is a guide. When I found the NFT just there, it was gratifying, a souvenir from that moment that came to me automatically. A question I began wondering, how did the band experience the events from where they were streaming live? So as my emotion progressed, I brought some manner, I jazzed up my outfit a bit, ready to look. I did try a few different platforms, but I kept coming back to Decentraland because that's where most of the social engagement was, and this study is about people. That was why I came back to Decentraland for the purpose of trying out this method. On to some later journal excerpts. A couple of days spent playing in the metaverse feels like a long time. I wonder why that is. I think I had such a welcoming experience from people here, so I feel like I'm part of something that is now for me when previously it wasn't. I feel bold, confident. I visit a promotional bar, there isn't much going on there. It's sort of a liminal space with no obvious focus. There was a squid-like bartender which I interacted with, but it was a chatbot, and that was really disappointing to me. Interacting with it didn't really support my goals as a user. But then, I stumbled across another player whose first time it was, and they were lost. I wanted some help understanding what to do. I told them about a music event coming up, and bam, I felt like I'd instantly leveled up from newcomer to experienced player. The apprentice had become the master. Except I wished I could take them around to venues with me, the best I could do was post-coordinates in the chat for the music venue. Wouldn't it be cool for us to tether together in order to travel as a group between locations? I accidentally clicked on my own and made my way back to them. Hopefully, they found their own way around. Did I feel a tiny bit of responsibility for their experience? I wonder how I'd feel if I were in their shoes and the person giving me advice just disappeared and never came back. I went to the venue with the dance floor. There was a DJ live streaming. I saw some friends, and they called me out in the text chat. It was nice to feel so welcomed. I'm thinking back to other online music experiences I've had. You could just set up your avatar dancing with all these funky-looking people and get live shout-outs from the DJ and sit back and enjoy it. I can imagine putting this on the television on a Friday night with friends in the house and serve a Spotify playlist. I wonder what everyone else is doing behind their screens at home. Whether much in-person social engagement happens simultaneously as in the Metaverse. The next morning, I received a message from my friend and asked for a wallet address. Working in the space, I get a lot of random DMs related to crypto and NFTs, but I checked out the profile picture of the person who messaged me and recognized them from their avatar, made sure I checked their profile. I replied with my wallet address and I was excited to find what might be dropped to me. It turned out to be a wearable. It feels to me that participating in the Metaverse is like a platform on a Twitter space. The hosts were talking about spatial. A platform I visited before, but decided not to spend my research time in it because there wasn't a lot of social engagement going on. On Twitter, two links were posted to a parcel of land in spatial on the left that one of the speakers on the Twitter spaces had been working on and a venue in Decentraland streaming the space in spatial. I entered both spaces and was able to watch my avatar in spatial whilst I was invited to speak on the Twitter space. I was in three worlds at once and it really got me thinking about interoperability of avatars and what use cases there might be for wanting to have multiple versions of yourself to across different platforms. It also really reinforced to me how early adoption is that so much of participation in these platforms appears to be about 10 days. So I conducted my explorations over about 10 days. I spent about 15 hours trawling social media, about 10 hours, 15 hours in the metaverse itself and really only to test this method out, to test the value of doing it. I didn't expect to find out anything very certain in this period of time but I did come away with some reflections. So you can learn stuff about social media. The engagement level on social media definitely feels more prominent. It's busier than actual platform engagement. I know there's a lot of discussion about active daily users on these platforms being really low. I did find lots of people. I also found lots of the same people on these platforms. If anyone who works at Decentraland can give us some insights on their daily extension of the metaverse because it's part of the experience for it. So Twitter, Twitch, Discord, OpenSea, Telegram, all of these form part of the metaverse experience and that poses a question. Is there value in folding in these social networks into metaverse platforms or should they exist outside of the 3D world? So as a place where culture can be observed, tribes, rituals and symbols are everywhere in the metaverse. The sharing of screenshots seems to be its own art form. There are people who are photographers who do this and that's what they get group photos of people together. There are so many rituals and symbols celebrating and welcoming one another. The use of Web3 language, the symbols in wearables and even avatar movements, gifting items, supporting new people with technical challenges, all of this good stuff. So if you're new to Web3 culture, immersion like this is a fast track way to get to know Web3 users. But for the already initiated, if you've been in the space for a long time like I have, it may not be as fruitful. It certainly reinforces what we know about Web3 users. But I suspect that the culture in the metaverse will change. I'm interested in the questions around how Web3 culture now affects people who are outside of it. What do they think when they join this space? What new cultures will move into the space or emerge as adoption grows? I thought, I thought I was being really clever and put loads of questions together that I was going to like grill people about in the metaverse and that was totally the wrong approach to go for. They were all the wrong questions and it wasn't the right format. Good questions really only emerged after spending time in the metaverse. And the ethnographic method does cultivate very deep empathy with users. Sometimes it's hard to remember that you are studying other people and it's easy to slip into the mindset of I am the user. And you could end up just performing a UX audit just writing a journal of all the problems that you find as you go through. But it really is about people. It's about observing people, not just about the platform, however I do think it can be used to identify opportunities for platform improvements. The questions that I came up with as I was going, as I was journaling on my explorations point to those. Certainly it can uncover good research questions for further inquiry. So if you're building in the metaverse space I encourage you to get close to your users. Don't rely on just discord signals to plan your feature roadmap like please don't do that. Be method, method, methodical, there we go, approach to collecting data and triangulate with multiple methods that's really important. Interviews, observations and immersion too. And if you want to learn about emerging online communities in general virtual worlds are a great place to start. So very lastly if you're a user in the metaverse then I really want to learn about your experiences to support this ongoing research and the final reports. So please scan the QR code complete the six minute survey and you can actually win some USDC and I really look forward to being able to share the full published results. Gracias. I think we have time for one question. Excellent. So proactive. Hi Georgia, great talk. I was wondering how could you keep your user in check, your inner user in check to keep on being a researcher while you were immersing yourself and you were deep diving into this universe? I think it's the journaling. I was doing the journaling live, I wrote thousands of thousands of words as I went collecting like every data point I got like hundreds of screenshots as well that keeps you on your toes to remember that you are observing the experience as a researcher and not just as a user otherwise you just go about uncover a problem or maybe a question might enter your brain and then leave again because you are not documenting it. So the important bit is the field notes it's the documentation of the process.