Design and Construction of Virtual Spaces for Communications

In this paper, some initial results are presented concerning work on the description and implementation of communications environments, here referred to as "virtual spaces, " that is, environments produced by communications systems, usually TCP/IP networks, and associated user devices such as telephones, PC's, PDA's, and so on. The underlying purpose of this research is to characterise formally the concept of virtual space and to examine the design process for the creation of virtual spaces that will both attract and hold the attention of the target users.