Software for Evaluation of Conceptual Design

This paper describes a prototype for evaluating design options. The prototype has been developed as part of a research project which sought to establish understanding of how evaluation of conceptual design can be improved. The paper describes the evaluation methods which are supported by the prototype, it addresses the requirements that the methods imply, and it explains the actual implementation of the prototype. Finally it discusses what have been learned from developing and testing the prototype. In this paper it is suggested, that a software tool which supports evaluation of design can be developed with a limited effort, and that such tools could support a structured evaluation process as opposed to no evaluation. Compared to manual evaluation, the introduced software based evaluation tool offers automation of tasks, such as performing assessments, when they are based on prior evaluations, generating reports to document the evaluation, and highlighting trade-offs.