Date of Award

Spring 2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

STEM Education & Professional Studies

Program/Concentration

Instructional Design and Technology

Committee Director

John Baaki

Committee Member

Karen Sanzo

Committee Member

Monica Tracey

Abstract

Uncertainty is a state of tension and unresolved conflict that can drive the design process. The purpose of this study, an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), was to explore the designer experience of navigating uncertainty. The goal was to describe, interpret, and situate how designers make sense of moving through uncertainty by prompting them to deeply reflect on moments of uncertainty from past, complex design projects. Four themes emerged from the researched data related to uncertainty, identity, creation, and empathy. In addition, unexpected findings revealed three particularly interesting uncertainty navigation strategies, including biding time, gleaning knowledge, and choosing sidework. These unexpected findings, personal strategies for navigating design uncertainty, align with prior studies related to the stages of navigating uncertainty as well transformative learning.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/d16c-j496

ORCID

0009-0005-7189-3699

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