Pii: S0953-5438(98)00058-7

Personal ([2] C. Barnatt, Cyber Business — Mindsets for a Wired Age, Wiley, New York, 1995) computers and networks have transformed communications in the workplace over the last decade. Tomorrow’s society is likely to revolve around the use of Computer Mediated Communication (CMCs) to eschew the geographical distance between individuals ([27] N. Negroponte, Being Digital, Hodder and Stoughton, 1995; [28] D. Norfolk, The virtual enterprise, Information Age November Issue (1995) 32–39). A new dilemma for designers of this technology will be discovering ways of humanising systems development and design. This paper develops a framework called CLIMATE (Community, Language, Interaction, and Medium in the Analysis of Telepresence Environments) which may ultimately be used for capturing user and environment requirements. The virtual environment that forms as a result of this CMC is rich in social nuances, such as on-line friendships, communities and so on, that sometimes reflect the elaborate cultures of real life ([37] H. Rheingold, The Virtual Community, Minerva, 1995). CLIMATE is intended to help in capturing a more holistic picture of requirements, in terms of the users, task, and environment. The approach is inductivist, relying on gathering rich data from log transcripts, participant observation and questionnaire surveys. It is intended that CLIMATE will provide a step further towards integrating social and technical design requirements in the application of CMCs. q 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.