Designing shared virtual environments for social interaction.

The Distributed Legible City (DLC) is an interactive multi-media art installation enabling a number of ‘cyclists’ to participate in a shared virtual environment and to tour together around three city representations. In this paper we describe the evolution of the DLC guided by ethnographic study. In particular we consider the implications and problems associated with designing a virtual environment where the requirements, such ‘support social interaction’ are ambiguous and open ended.