We created an app to help users reflect on their design processes through the creation of “design signatures.” The app allows users to input design activities that they engage in to document their process for various design projects. Users are able to input either in “realtime” (as they engage indesign) or “asynchronously” (by entering data on how time was spent after a project session is complete). The app displays how users allocate their time across the design activities in a timeline plot, or “design signature,” for that project. Users are encouraged to compare their design signatures across projects to better understand themselves as designers.

Over time, the aspiration of this app is for users to develop “design awareness” about their personal design processes. Enacting design process awareness when engaging in design means that designers: 1.understand the design process in general, 2. stay aware of where they are in the process when engaging in a design project, 3. make informed choices for next steps, 4. enact those choices, and 5. continue the cycle.