Improving design processes through structured reflection : feedback

The approach to and results of the empirical study Isabelle Reymen performed at the end of her Ph.D. research project is described. The Ph.D. project resulted in a design philosophy, a design frame, a design method, and a prototype software tool. The empirical study has been performed to get feedback on these results from the design practice. In the empirical study, expert designers gave feedback on all results in an interview, whereas junior designers used the design method and the prototype during one day and evaluated both at the end of the day. The feedback is only a first confrontation with design practice to judge the generality (domain independence), the relevance, and the potential usefulness of the results for design practice. The goal of this report is to offer researchers more information about the performed empirical study and its results. The report includes two main parts: The first part concerns the approach to the feedback, including a detailed description of the protocol to get feedback from the junior and experts designers. The second part concerns the analysis and synthesis of the raw data received as feedback and the final results of the feedback. More about the Ph.D. project and its results can be found in the Ph.D. thesis, which is also published as SAI Report 2001/1.