ReflectionSpace: an interactive visualization tool for supporting reflection-on-action in design

Designers move forward by looking back at past experiences. Reflection is a central activity of creative design which allows designers to develop new insight into their designs, generate alternative solutions, and reframe the problem. Researchers have emphasized the positive impact of reflection on design outcomes - recognizing the effectiveness of reflection as a learning tool and suggesting that designers who adopt reflective practices acquire better understanding of their design processes. This dissertation examines novel ways to augment reflective practice through design process visualization. The hypothesis of this dissertation is that a visual representation of design materials that captures and communicates the design process and context of design activity will better foster reflection-on-action. In support of this hypothesis, this dissertation makes three contributions to the field of human-computer interaction; (i) it reports results from three field studies of reflective practice and re-appropriation during the early phases of creative design; (ii) it describes the design and implementation of an interactive visualization tool supporting reflection-on-action; and (iii) it provides empirical evidence of the effectiveness of design process visualization for supporting reflection-on-action. To investigate the benefits of reflection support tools for creative design, we developed ReflectionSpace, an interactive visualization tool supporting reflective activities. The key innovation in ReflectionSpace is that it maps existing design materials to appropriate design phases and contexts of use and places corresponding representations into a time- and activity-centric visualization that can be navigated at different levels of detail. Results from a laboratory study indicate that a visual representation of design process is preferred over a file-centric approach for supporting reflection-on-action. Our work provides empirical evidence that interactive visualization of design process benefits designers by supporting reflection-on-action and contributes lessons that can guide the design of a new generation of design support tools