Introducing a Tool to Support Reflection Through Sketching and Prototyping During the Design Process

Abstract

Sketching and prototyping are parts of a ‘reflective conversation with materials of a design situation’ (Schön, 1992). To support this conversation, we developed a reflective tool -the Reflection Canvas- that facilitates reflection activities through sketching and prototyping on the one hand and verbalisation on the other. We introduced the reflective tool to design students. Based on observation and answers from a questionnaire data reveal that guided reflection structured the process in a helpful way. It also turned out students had difficulties to switch from visualisation to verbalisation.

Reflection Canvas – An Approach to Structure Reflection Activities in Engineering Design

“…As shown in Figure 1 (Section 1.2), Awareness includes (knowledge, motivation, expectation), while activity refers to Analyzing (dimensions: social, process, goal) at tactical and operational levels of reflection (column: Reflection Level), to which the further investigations refer. Following the classification of Jobst et al (2020)…”

“…a two-stage reflection process is made to identify patterns of activity where consciousness indicates a new cue (Jobst et al, 2020). Based on the classification of reflection approaches, a framework of reflection can be derived.…”

“…Reflexivity in teams can be described as an iterative, three-step process (action/adaption, reflection, planning) that is repeated in reflection cycles over several work phases (Gabelica et al, 2014;Konradt et al, 2016). In this paper, we adapted the original model by West (1996) using the model proposed by Jobst et al (2020;c.f. Figure 1) to expand on reflection by adding componenents of awareness (i.e.…”

“…In a first step (reflecting), team members evaluate current internal goals, performance shown so far, and strategies applied using feedback as well as knowledge, motivation and expectation (i.e. awareness; Jobst et al, 2020). This helps to identify the reasons for successes and failures in the collaboration (Kauffeld et al, 2019).…”

“…In engineering projects (EP), new methods, and process improvement are important. Reflection, as a dynamic process between consciousness and activities (Jobst et al, 2020), has proven to enhance processes by offering benefits for team performance, team innovation and team effectiveness. In this paper, reflection is not aimed only at the solution but at the structured action and thus an active participation process of action.…”