CHARACTERIZING REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN DESIGN – WHAT ABOUT THOSE IDEAS YOU GET IN THE SHOWER?
Year: 2011
Editor: Culley, S.J.; Hicks, B.J.; McAloone, T.C.; Howard, T.J. & Badke-Schaub, P.
Author: Currano, Rebecca M.; Steinert, Martin; Leifer, Larry J.
Series: ICED
Section: Human Behaviour in Design
Page(s): 374-383
Abstract
Innovation is in part driven by creative ideation, particularly in the fuzzy front-end of the design process, which has been described and studied as a process of reflection-in-action [1]. We introduce and explore the notion of Reflection-out-of-action, documenting it as a practice utilized by designers in coming up with new ideas, and contrasting it to Schön’s concept of Reflection-in-action. We explore reflective design activities that occur on the level of the individual designer. Based on analyzing artifacts, surveying experts, conducting inductive and deductive conceptual framing rounds, and observing explorative experiments we were able to: 1) show evidence of various types of reflection in idealog artifacts; 2) identify and characterize reflective practices in use by designers; and 3) develop a framework for mapping reflective practices with respect to whether they take place in-action or out-of-action and whether they are driven by remembering or gathering.
Keywords: REFLECTIVE PRACTICE; REFLECTION; DESIGN