ABSTRACT
In the five-year research program Osmond identified a particular liminal space linked to a threshold concept that applied to first-year industrial design undergraduates. The response to the particular challenge of the design uncertainty threshold led Associate Head Dr. Karen Bull to develop the design teaching arrangements to include focused interventions. A major study at Coventry University identified the toleration of design uncertainty as a key threshold concept, observing that students who were unable to travel through it could not proceed to become capable designers. In the practice-based approach to design education, the intention could be seen as one of combining the generic designerly thinking with the domain-related specialized knowledge of a signature pedagogy to produce a level of overall capability sufficient to gain entry to the relevant community of design practice. Design involves a different way of understanding the world and responding to it, which has been characterized by Cross as a "Designerly Way of Knowing".
