In the creative design process, it is difficult to observe the creative process from an inner perspective when people are deeply engaged in their work. The reason behind this is that the people who are absorbed in the work are assumed to have entered the flow state. Moreover, an external observation of the design process fails to grasp the designers' thoughts since they are stimulated by intrinsic motivation and formed owing to inner dynamics.
The aim of the study described in this paper is to propose a method to observe the internal thoughts elicited during the creative design process by extending Reflections and Poietiques. This method comprises three stages: (1) the creative design process, (2) the formulation of two reports on the designer's work by the designer and a third person (art researcher), and (3) the formulation of another report by the designer after examining both the reports created in the second stage. The process of self-formation is expected to begin in the third stage. The observation is determined to be established, on condition that the self-formation is confirmed during this observation process.
We applied this method to a space-designing project. The three reports were analyzed, both quantitatively and qualitatively, and a number of observations that were not included in the previous two reports were identified in the third report. Following these analyses, we could confirm that the process of self-formation was initiated in the third stage and the observation was complete.
