Design Evaluator is a sketch-based environment that supports design evaluation about spatial organization in the early design stage. Design evaluation is an important part of the iterative design process. Therefore, a computational support for design that provides evaluation feedback will be useful. In the early stages of design, designers often use freehand drawing to represent their ideas and to generate design alternatives. An effective evaluation tool for early design should support freehand drawing.
Design Evaluator has three main components: a sketch-based interface, a design evaluation advisor, and a display manager. The sketch interface of Design Evaluator supports design sketching, and diagram recognition. The evaluation advisor infers and extracts information from the diagrams to suggest and retrieve design advice. The display manager then provides text notes, plan annotation on the diagram, and walkthrough of the 3D space.