Evaluation of virtual prototypes: literature and empirical findings

The objective of this research is to identify and synthesize metrics to assess virtual prototypes in product design. The metrics are identified from literature and practitioners (novice/experienced designers and design faculty members), and evaluation categories are constituted. The identified metrics and constituted evaluation categories from: (a) literature and practitioners, and (b) across various practitioner groups, are compared. 144 and 29 distinct metrics are identified from literature and practitioners, resulting in 15 and 9 evaluations categories, respectively. The metrics from the practitioners is a subset of the metrics from the literature. The differences between: (a) literature and practitioners, and (b) across various practitioner groups, suggest the need for support to help practitioners choose relevant metrics for their prototyping context from an encompassing list.