Reflective practice in engineering design [electronic resource]
Keywords: Mechanical Engineering.

Engineering design researchers tend to study design processes and methodology from one of two primary approaches. The first, and more traditional approach, is the positivist treatment of design as rational problem solving, exemplified by Herbert Simon. A second, somewhat less prevalent approach is illustrated in Donald Schön's constructivist theory of design as reflective practice. Schön's study of reflective practice in design centers on the concept of "reflection-in-action", referring to intentional and conscious reflection by the designer. This perspective serves as the starting point and foundation for this dissertation research. Our focus remains primarily on the individual designer, whose mind serves as the locus of reflection, but with attention to the physical, social, and mental context, which form the setting for reflective practice. The current work was driven by the following questions: 1. What kinds of activities do designers engage in when they get ideas? 2. Can we identify common characteristics of these activities and their context? 3. Do some activities and/or characteristics of activities correlate better than others with the generation of creative ideas? 4. Are reflective practices outside of the work tasks of design a frequent source of creative ideation and insight for designers? The initial phase was largely exploratory in nature and grounded in observation, examining design artifacts for evidence of reflective practice, and surveying designers on the context surrounding their recent ideas. Analysis reveals that idealogs, as artifacts of design work, show evidence of many different reflective practices engaged by student designers in an ME design course. It also leads us to an expanded view and refined understanding of what might be considered a reflective practice and a catalyst for ideation. In the second phase, designers talked through and sketched out the design process they used for a recent project, yielding rich descriptions of novice and intermediate designers' design processes and reflective practices. Some common trends in descriptions of the characteristics of participants' reflective practices include: reference to "mindless" activities, exercise and physical activities, conversation/social activities, and prototyping. Phase three consistsed of two surveys aimed at identifying characteristics of reflective practices. The first was geared toward discovering what general activities designers engage in when they get ideas and differentiating between most and least helpful activities through a series of bipolar attributes. The second asked participants to focus on a particular idea or insight they had, and then to describe the contextual setting in which they had gotten it. We find that designers use a variety of reflective practices. Some activities, such as conversations with friends and family and thinking before going to bed, are not traditionally thought of as productive work activities, and yet respondents often reported them as helpful to creative ideation. A second survey asked respondents about their reflective practices in light of an actual experience of an "Aha!" moment. An exploratory factor analysis conducted on the Likert section of this survey reveals four factors, including engagement, attention, stress, and enthusiasm.