Exploring approachability in social virtual reality: Scaffolding social translucence

Approachability in social virtual reality (sVR), a technology with growing relevance for education and knowledge work, remains underexplored, particularly in relation to novice users. Drawing on social translucence theory and Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), this study explores how affordances for visibility, awareness, and accountability may be realised through avatar-mediated peer-to-peer scaffolding. While scaffolding may not fully explain or ensure approachability, drawing on empirical episodes from a qualitative sVR workshop with novices, we highlight its role in shaping early user experiences. This encourages attention to strategies that may help novices 'fail forward together', leveraging the inherently social nature of sVR for approachability as a developmental experience. • Explores how peer-to-peer scaffolding may shape early experiences in social VR (sVR) • Considers how novices realise visibility, awareness, and accountability in practice • Analyses situated episodes of avatar-mediated peer-to-peer scaffolding in sVR • Proposes a heuristic to explore approachability as a developmental experience