Disembodied, Asocial, and Unreal: How Users (Re)Interpret Designed Affordances of Social VR

Although Social Virtual Reality (SVR) affordances are designed to enable embodied social activities and interactions within virtual environments, the ways that users perceive and interpret these affordances can shape how SVR platforms are used and experienced. In this study, we examined the design and use of SVR affordances based on qualitative survey data from 100 SVR users. We observed that user practices diverge in important ways from intended designs, adding complexity to conventional interpretations of SVR platforms as embodied social environments. This research highlights dynamic user behaviour in which users interpret and reconfigure the affordances of SVR platforms, ranging from asocial use cases to actions that reflect the current limits of embodied communication. We contribute findings that may improve SVR design by revealing opportunities to foreground user needs and expectations, leveraging both the designed possibilities of SVR and the interpretations of those possibilities.