How well can we reflect? Examining the quality and content of novice designers’ reflections on social identity

Humans, with their various social identities, form an important part of engineering design. Therefore, designers must reflect on the implications of social identity when designing products. However, little research has examined the quality and content of student designers’ reflections on the importance of social identity in design, and we aim to explore this research gap. The results of our study revealed higher frequencies of responses related to personal experiences and design/action among designers with minoritized social identities. Designers with minoritized identities also provided higher-quality reflections than those in the majority group. These results suggest that designers with different social identities may vary in their ability to critically reflect on the impact of social identity in design and call for the need for new reflective design tools and educational approaches.