Visual Space manual, Spaces, Spaces

Spaces are shared homes for communities, teams, projects, and interests. A space brings people, identity, guidance, and connected work into one recognizable place, so members can understand where they are and keep finding the right context as the community grows. The structure is broad enough for a whole organization but still useful for a small group. Members join the space once, then move through its areas and apps without rebuilding the same map in every tool.

The structure is broad enough for a whole organization but still useful for a small group. Members join the space once, then move through its areas and apps without rebuilding the same map in every tool.

One Community, Three Levels

Every space uses the same hierarchy: space → subspace → activity. The space is the community as a whole. Subspaces gather related work under a subject, department, project, or phase. Activities are the focused places where day-to-day collaboration happens.

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Space carries the main identity, membership, rules, roles, storage context, and navigation root.

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Subspace keeps related activities together so a large community does not become one flat list.

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Activity gives a particular objective or working group a home for its conversations, documents, meetings, goals, and events.

Activities belong inside subspaces rather than directly under the space. A new space also starts without generated subspaces or activities, leaving its owner free to create a structure that matches the community instead of cleaning up defaults. Space Areas develops the distinctions, while The Activities Panel explains how members browse that structure and how eligible managers keep it organized.

This shared hierarchy is one of the most useful ideas in Visual Space. When a member moves from Chat to Documents or from an event to its supporting work, the area still answers the question, “What is this connected to?”

The public Subspace and Activities remain beside the Posts workspace as the member moves through connected work.

Join Once, Then Return To The Right Place

Published public spaces can be found through Search and joined directly. A private space uses invitations so access stays intentional. Once joined, a space appears in the joined spaces rail and becomes part of the member's everyday navigation.

The rail is personal rather than a fixed community menu. Members can arrange joined spaces in the order that suits them, and reopening one can return them to their last available location. Small indicators can also signal new activity or an ongoing meeting without requiring the member to open every space first.

Joining is more than following updates: it establishes ordinary space membership and keeps the community close at hand. A non-owner can later leave a space, while an owner must first hand over ownership or remove the space. See Space Membership for joining, invitations, leaving, and the relationship between membership and the rail.

Build The Identity Before Publishing

Space creation begins as a draft. This gives the creator room to choose a clear name, add an avatar and introduction, decide on privacy, and shape the linked onboarding content before other people rely on the space.

The handle is especially consequential. It becomes the stable path people share and use to return to the space. During draft setup, the creator can resolve a collision and refine a handle such as design-lab; after publication, the handle is locked so links and member navigation remain dependable. A handle that belonged to an existing or retained space may remain unavailable even when that space is no longer visible.

Meaningful draft work is saved and can be reopened from the joined spaces rail. Closing an untouched draft removes it instead of leaving an empty community behind. Publishing makes the prepared identity and linked content available to eligible readers, keeps the creator joined as owner, and leaves the space ready for its first deliberately created subspace and activity.

Creating or publishing a space does not automatically post an announcement to the feed. The owner can first make the About material useful, create the initial areas, and then share the space when there is enough context for members to act on.

For the complete setup journey, follow Create and Publish a Space.

Give Members More Than A Name

A good space explains itself. Its About Pages provide a welcoming orientation surface: identity, summary, joined state, main areas, and available highlights such as upcoming events, updates, contributors, or showcased work. The exact sections depend on the area and the content available there.

Every space, subspace, and activity also has linked article content. This is the durable place to explain purpose, expectations, resources, timelines, and how people can contribute. The About page helps someone scan and choose where to go; the linked article gives them the fuller context needed to participate well.

The public About header pairs a recognizable identity and concise purpose with the deeper linked Space article.

Other guidance supports that introduction without replacing it:

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Rules set local expectations for behavior and give moderation decisions a shared reference point.

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Useful links point members toward important resources beyond the built-in area content.

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Contribution pins spotlight published posts and articles that need attention, review, help, or follow-up.

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Space guidance keeps local rules beside the wider community guidelines members should follow everywhere.

These surfaces turn onboarding into maintained community knowledge rather than something buried in old conversations. Community Guidance explains how rules, links, pins, and platform-wide expectations work together.

Connected Apps Keep Work In Context

A space is not a container for one kind of content. Its hierarchy carries into the apps members use to communicate, plan, meet, publish, and preserve results. Each app still has its own purpose:

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Chat keeps fast discussion with the activity where it belongs. Decisions that need a longer life can move into more durable content.

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Posts and feeds make updates visible and discussable, while full articles provide room for developed explanations and reusable knowledge.

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Documents gathers files, folders, articles, and supported app work under the same space, subspace, and activity map.

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Meetings gives an activity a live room for voice, video, screen sharing, and shared work without detaching the call from its surrounding context.

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Goals keeps objectives and progress close to the activity doing the work. A space can also use an optional short reference key so a goal can appear as something recognizable like VS-42.

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Events coordinates scheduled moments at the space area where they matter, from a community-wide occasion to an activity-specific session.

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Expo is the curated showcase for selected work across the space and its areas; it complements the broader Documents library rather than replacing it.

The value is continuity. Chat can carry the immediate exchange, a goal can hold the objective, a meeting can bring people together, and a document or article can preserve the result—all while the activity remains the common frame.

Choose Visibility Deliberately

A space can be public or private. Public spaces are available to eligible visitors and can be joined directly. Private spaces are limited to accepted members, and their protected content should not appear in public navigation or discovery.

Privacy also follows the hierarchy. A private space protects everything beneath it, and a private subspace protects its activities. An individual activity can be private even when its parent area is public. Access to a private area grants entry, not management authority; roles and permissions separately determine what a person can publish, organize, moderate, or manage after entering.

Choose privacy during draft setup. Published spaces and areas do not support switching between public and private. For a private root space, publication completes first and then points the owner to invite members from Space Settings. Private nested areas can use their own member-selection flow. Space Privacy covers inherited access, private membership, and the practical boundaries in more depth.

Share Responsibility Without Losing A Clear Owner

The owner is the final steward of a space, but a growing community does not have to depend on one person for every task. Roles and scoped permissions can delegate responsibilities such as organizing areas, managing rules, coordinating content, or moderating where the member has the necessary access.

Membership, private access, and authority remain separate on purpose. A joined member does not automatically become a manager. A person allowed into a private activity does not automatically receive moderation rights. Likewise, a role does not reveal an area the person cannot enter.

For sensitive changes, ownership remains explicit. The current owner can transfer the space to an existing joined member with confirmation. The previous owner stays a member, but only the new owner can transfer ownership again.

Supporting The Shared Home

Several quieter settings help the space stay understandable and sustainable:

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Storage information shows used and available capacity, upload limits, and the effect of assigned Boosts.

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Goal references let eligible managers confirm, change, or clear the optional short key used in readable goal labels.

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Identity controls keep the title, description, avatar, and banner consistent across About, navigation, and linked content.

These controls matter when the community needs them, but they support the main experience rather than defining it. The space remains, first of all, a place where people can recognize the group, find its work, and contribute with the right context.

Common Questions

Is a space the same as an activity?

No. A space is the whole community. An activity is a focused collaboration area inside a subspace, and a subspace belongs inside the space.

Does a new space include a default subspace or activity?

No. New spaces start empty. The owner creates the first subspace and then adds activities that fit the community's real structure.

Can I change the space handle after publishing?

No. You can refine the handle while the space is a draft, but publication locks it so shared paths and joined-space navigation remain stable.

Can I change a public space to private later, or the reverse?

No. Privacy is a creation and publication decision. Choose it before publishing and review Space Privacy before setting up protected areas.

Does creating a space announce it to everyone?

No. Space creation does not automatically create a feed post. The owner can prepare the structure and onboarding material before deciding how to introduce it.

Where should I explain what the space is for?

Use About for a concise orientation and the linked article for fuller purpose, expectations, resources, and contribution guidance. Rules, links, and pins can then keep important directions easy to find.

Which app should hold a piece of work?

Choose by the job: Chat for immediate discussion, posts for visible updates, articles or Documents for durable material, Goals for objectives, Events for scheduled occasions, Meetings for live collaboration, and Expo for a curated public-facing selection.