The thesis develops a view of design in a concept formation framework and outlines a language to describe both the object of the design and the process of designing. The unknown object at the outset of the design work may be seen as an unknown concept that the designer is to define. Throughout the process, she develops a description of this object by relating it to known concepts. The search stops when the designer is satisfied that the design specification is complete enough to satisfy the requirements from it once built. It is then a collection of propositions that all contribute towards defining the design object - a collection of sentences describing relationships between the object and known concepts. Also, the design process itself may be described by relating known concepts - by organizing known abilities into particular patterns of activation, or mobilization. In view of the demands posed to a language to use in this concept formation process, the framework of a Design Process Language (DPL) is developed. The basis for the language are linguistic categories that act as classes of relations used to combine concepts, containing relations used for describing process and object within the same general system, with some relations being process specific, others being object specific, and with the bulk being used both for process and object description. Another outcome is the distinction of modal relations, or relations describing futurity, possibility, willingness, hypothetical events, and the like. The design process almost always includes aspects such as these, and it is thus necessary for a language facilitating design process description to support such relationships to be constructed. The DPL is argued to be a foundation whereupon to build a language that can be used for enabling computers to be more useful - act more intelligently - in the design process.

翻译：本论文在概念形成框架中发展了设计的观点，并概述了一种用于描述设计对象及设计过程本身的语言。设计工作初始阶段的未知对象可被视为设计师需要定义的未知概念。在整个过程中，设计师通过将其与已知概念相关联来构建对该对象的描述。当设计师认为设计规范已足够完整，能够满足建成后的需求时，搜索过程便终止。此时，该规范成为一组命题的集合——这些命题共同定义了设计对象，即描述对象与已知概念之间关系的句子集合。此外，设计过程本身也可以通过关联已知概念来描述——即将已知能力组织成特定的激活或动员模式。鉴于概念形成过程中对所用语言提出的要求，本文开发了一种设计过程语言（Design Process Language, DPL）的框架。该语言的基础是作为关系类别的语言范畴，这些类别用于组合概念，包含在同一通用系统中描述过程与对象的关系。其中部分关系专属于过程，部分专属于对象，而大部分关系同时用于过程与对象的描述。另一成果是对情态关系的区分，即描述未来性、可能性、意愿、假设事件等关系。设计过程几乎总是包含这些方面，因此，一种能促进设计过程描述的语言必须支持构建此类关系。本文论证了DPL可作为基础，在此基础上构建一种语言，使计算机在设计过程中发挥更大作用——即更智能地行动。