Towards a Theory of Culturally Embedded Design Cognition: Evidence from Industrial Design Practice in Nigeria

Design cognition research has been predominantly developed within Western academic and professional contexts, producing theoretical frameworks that may inadequately account for the cultural embeddedness of design thinking in non-Western settings. This doctoral study develops an original theory of Culturally Embedded Design Cognition through a sustained ethnographic investigation of design thinking processes among industrial design practitioners in Lagos, Kano, and Enugu. Drawing on cognitive anthropology, design studies, and cultural psychology, the research employs protocol analysis of design sessions, think-aloud verbalisations, and longitudinal participant observation across eighteen design practitioners over fourteen months. Grounded theory analysis of the resulting dataset identifies culturally specific reasoning patterns, value hierarchies, and problem-framing strategies that differ substantively from Western design cognition models in their treatment of community embeddedness, ancestral material logic, and relational rather than individual user conceptualisation. The emergent Culturally Embedded Design Cognition Theory proposes four novel constructs: communal ideation anchoring, heritage material reasoning, relational user modelling, and contextual constraint inversion. Each construct is theoretically elaborated and grounded in empirical vignettes from the fieldwork. The theory is subjected to critical review by a panel of international design cognition scholars and Nigerian cultural psychologists through a structured validation symposium. Contributions include a theoretical framework applicable to design education reform, practitioner development, and cross-cultural design collaboration methodology in Sub-Saharan African contexts. Keywords: design cognition, cultural embeddedness, theory development, Nigerian design, grounded theory.