ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the condition of the first steps of design from the position of the beginning designer are experienced as encounters with overwhelmingly "wicked" design problems and uncertainty is inherent to a creative response. It explores Schwartz's contention that choice is paradoxical and the "way out" of the resultant paralysis offers directives for beginning design pedagogy that will enable students to accept and ultimately embrace uncertainty as a necessary given condition of design. Students new to beginning design courses are for the first time stepping onto a path of their own personal development as designers. As such, they must discover and embrace challenges to creative thinking that in initial design experiences involve countering misguided preconceptions, encountering uncertainty, harnessing creative ambiguities, and taking steps toward abilities for visioning and critical reflection. Most familiar to design practices, but new to beginning design students, is the determination of constraints on factors that influence design decision making.
