Thank you for this article; given the recent need to create higher-performing virtual offices this work seems prescient and useful.
I have noticed that, in addition to the issues that you have described, using the laptop speakers and microphones can lead to disruptive echoes and feedback. I can imagine that these hardware considerations will increasingly form a set of standard expectations for conduct in virtual environments.
Entries and exits from buildings create pinch points where people are likely to be collected together in small spaces. Access controls and door designs have different throughput rates so conceivably you could design architectural solutions around the goal of minimising contact.
I’m minded to think of how revolving doors could be adopted to facilitate a reduction in infection communication through a restriction in total diameter to necessitate single-occupant compartments and the introduction of air filters to constantly sweep the compartments. These systems seem already to be in place to deal with larger particles.
Though fixating on this small element of architectural design might seem a little less significant than transport and so on it does have the benefit of being fairly mutable. Here’s a good article that covers a huge amount of ground on revolving doors that might prove useful in furthering this discussion.