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According to Dorst and Dijkhuis (1995) the two principal paradigms governing design activity discourse, are Simon's rational problem solving, and Schon's theory of design as a 'reflective conversation with the situation'. The rational problem solving view, that a fixed problem space structures design activity, has reduced the designer to a 'missing person' within design activity research (Dorst & Reymen 2004). This thesis aims to highlight the agency of the designer in structuring and motivating socially situated design activity. Dorst's (2006) framework of 'design paradoxes' suggests that design problems are evolving and unknowable. Design situations are determined through the designer's reinterpretation of the social discourses underpinning design situations, in a similar way to 'problem setting' within 'reflection-in-action' (Schon 1983). While Dorst suggests interpretation relies on intuition, problem setting relies on 'professional artistry' which is 'bounded' by the 'appreciative system' (personal knowledge, values and beliefs) and is essentially 'learnable' (Schon 1983). This thesis explores the correspondence between Schon's theory and contemporary frameworks including 'design paradoxes' (Dorst 2006), 'designerly ways of knowing' (Cross 1982), 'organising principles' (Rowe 1987), and 'creative problem construction' (Mumford et al 2004). It investigates the agency of the designer as evidenced in the use of the 'appreciative system'. This is elucidated using case study analysis of a novice designer, within a tertiary design degree. The case reveals the structured and motivated use of the designer's appreciative system. It indicates the deployment of 'appreciative goals' are fundamental to the 'linking behaviour of designers' (Dorst 2006), enabling design to begin in the absence of 'repertoire' or domain knowledge (Schon 1983), and the acquisition of new repertoire knowledge. These emergent findings offer new pedagogical perspectives both in terms of design expertise, which is normally associated with domain knowledge, and educating domain independent, multidisciplinary designers. Frames or similar 'organising principles' operate in most design fields, and create a 'principle of relevance' for knowledge from multiple domains and disciplines (Buchanan 1992). An awareness and acknowledgement of the objective function of subjective personal and social knowledge is essential in order to locate the 'missing' designer and understand innovative design activity.

Products are designed to satisfy user needs. Thus, industrial designers are expected to have a thorough understanding of user needs and to incorporate those understandings into the design of products; however, it is not a straightforward task for designers to translate their conditional understanding into a product. The gap between product and user can be even wider when latent user needs, such as cultural ones, are calculated into the problem. Therefore the meanings and functions imbued in products by the designer may not be recognized and acknowledged by users, due to the differences in cultural preferences of designers and users from separate cultures. In spite of the fact that user satisfaction has been extensively supported in the design literature, it seems that such an approach allows only a passive role for designers, who actually act as cultural intermediaries; that is, the designers' role is merely presumed to catalyze the process and match user requirements to the end product. Thus, the impact of designers' cultural preferences is considered as incidental, or at least overlooked. A content analysis method was triangulated to collect and analyze diverse visual and textual data relating to the concept generation stage of the product development process. To collect data, professional industrial designers in the two culturally diverse countries of Australia and Iran were recruited to participate in half-hour design exercise sessions to sketch to a design brief, followed by responding to an interview questionnaire. The analysis of data revealed that: (1) designers' cultural preferences do influence their approaches toward tackling the design problem; (2) there are nexuses between the design aspects of the concepts generated and the cultural dimensions of the values of the societies in which the designers were born and has lived, and; (3)potential users can unconsciously comprehend the meaning invested in the product by the designer. This thesis breaks new ground for further advancing the study of the Designer-Precedent Approach (DPA) in other cultural and social contexts, while it challenges the conventional approaches of user-centered design (UCD) broadlyperceived as the ultimate method of incorporating users' wants into products.

Products are designed to satisfy user needs. Thus, industrial designers are expected to have a thorough understanding of user needs and to incorporate those understandings into the design of products; however, it is not a straightforward task for designers to translate their conditional understanding into a product. The gap between product and user can be even wider when latent user needs, such as cultural ones, are calculated into the problem. Therefore the meanings and functions imbued in products by the designer may not be recognized and acknowledged by users, due to the differences in cultural preferences of designers and users from separate cultures. In spite of the fact that user satisfaction has been extensively supported in the design literature, it seems that such an approach allows only a passive role for designers, who actually act as cultural intermediaries; that is, the designers' role is merely presumed to catalyze the process and match user requirements to the end product. Thus, the impact of designers' cultural preferences is considered as incidental, or at least overlooked. A content analysis method was triangulated to collect and analyze diverse visual and textual data relating to the concept generation stage of the product development process. To collect data, professional industrial designers in the two culturally diverse countries of Australia and Iran were recruited to participate in half-hour design exercise sessions to sketch to a design brief, followed by responding to an interview questionnaire. The analysis of data revealed that: (1) designers' cultural preferences do influence their approaches toward tackling the design problem; (2) there are nexuses between the design aspects of the concepts generated and the cultural dimensions of the values of the societies in which the designers were born and has lived, and; (3)potential users can unconsciously comprehend the meaning invested in the product by the designer. This thesis breaks new ground for further advancing the study of the Designer-Precedent Approach (DPA) in other cultural and social contexts, while it challenges the conventional approaches of user-centered design (UCD) broadlyperceived as the ultimate method of incorporating users' wants into products.