The Influence of Self-reflective Diaries on Students' Design Processes

Paper in proceeding, 2012

Earlier phases of design projects are always followed by the activities of analysis, synthesis and evaluation that are the outstanding commonalities shared between design process models. Designers continuously organise and reduce large amounts of generated data in order to find cohesion and clarity and gain a holistic understanding of the design space. The present research considers a specific way to facilitate the design processes of students. It elaborates on using diaries as an educational method for documenting self-reflections, which in turn aid students’ product form creation processes. Placing emphasis on reflection allows design students to (i) assess their activities and self-criticise the progress and content of their design projects, (ii) better plan and organize their project activities, and (iii) better communicate with other stakeholders in the product development process, by providing an opportunity to articulate what they have done.