This paper discusses methodologies which allow in-depth exploration of usage patterns and preferences in screen-based computer-mediated communication (CMC). The paper, which focuses on usage by the general public, is divided into five parts. The first part discusses the growth trends and special characteristics of CMC in comparison to other electronic communication technologies. The research challenges posed by CMC, particularly in contrast to research on mass communications, are examined in the second part. The next part describes the simulation-based experimental methods developed and employed by the authors to study CMC, including Infoserve, the software system used as a simulation mechanism; content choices provided; examples of manipulations of presentations used in experiments; online and offline measures of subjects' choices; illustrations of results; and potential new analyses. The fourth part discusses the advantages and limitations of simulation-based experiments for researching CMC; and the final part offers brief concluding comments, including an outline of future research directions. A list of the 10 topics and related subtopics used in experiments, a table comparing communication technologies, and figures depicting software and system architecture are appended. (Contains 16 references.) (KRN)