Supporting Conceptual Design in Collaborative Virtual Environments

The paper is concerned with the support of conceptual design activities in collaborative virtual environments. It proposes a new understanding of conceptual design from a social perspective that explains the levels of support that are needed / required for this type of CVEs and presents the development of a particular CVE that supports conceptual design in the area of interior space design. It is envisaged that the proposed approach can be employed to provide insight to designers of CVEs for conceptual design about the types of activities that could/should be supported by the tools; guide the selection and/or development of new collaborative tools for CVEs for conceptual design; inform the evaluation of CVEs for conceptual design in terms of the level of support that is achieved for the social activities of concern.