History

An interdisciplinary team consisting of usability experts, cognitive psychologists, designers and IT specialist at Fraunhofer IAO conducted the research of different virtual communication scenarios by means of prototypes specially manufactured for this purposed. The main goal was to develop software that effectively supports the user in their communication needs yet avoiding the so-called 'extraneous cognitive load'. For different fields of application and settings, prototypes had been developed and tested with hundreds of test persons. Here are some examples:

The result proved among other things that communication in the virtual room should be modeled on the situation in the real world. In this way it is possible to create software that is simple and can be handled intuitively. At the same time this is the key to high user acceptance and also for effective communication. That is the reason why vitero has its unique patented ergonomics as well as manifold tools for collaboration and moderation - matching every setting.

The year 2004 marks the founding of the vitero GmbH and beginning of a success story. With vitero 1.0 the scientific findings could be turned into software and effective communication could be experienced. Over the years the virtual team room has been successively optimized and its functions expanded. The chronology shows that its core principles such as table metaphor, what-you-see-is-what-I-see principle, avatar-based representation of participants or awareness elements keep on being observed - with good reason. They are outstanding features and set standards in 'internet-based communication and collaboration of spatially divided participants and groups'.