Designing for sustainability: Fostering reflection in the design process

Reflection is needed to provide solutions for wicked problems and to encourage social sustainability. Although reflection has been recognized as key in deep understanding and decision-making, it is rarely included in design agendas. In this paper we describe how reflection can enrich the design process, as well as their final solutions. We present design games as a participatory method that supports reflection and we exemplify it through two design cases. In each case, we point out several reflection triggers used in design games and we analyse the level of reflection they provoke. We conclude that opportunities for joint reflection are needed during the design process to enhance sustainable products and services.