# Designing Social VR: A Collection of Design Choices Across Commercial and Research Applications

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.02253 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.02253/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 6 Jan 2022.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Toward Inclusive Avatar Design with Limb Differences Through Artificial Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.11512/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Social VR has experienced tremendous growth in the commercial space recently as an emerging technology for rich interactions themed around leisure, work, and relationship building. As a result, the state of social VR application design has become rapidly obfuscated, which complicates identification of design trends and uncommon features that could inform future design, and hinders inclusion of new voices in this design space. To help address this problem, we present a taxonomy of social VR application design choices as informed by 44 commercial and prototypical applications. Our taxonomy was informed by multiple discovery strategies including literature review, search of VR-themed subreddits, and autobiographical landscape research. The taxonomy elucidates various features across three design areas: the self, interaction, and the environment.