This research responds to an increasing interest in understanding, evidencing and promoting the value of design in the public sector, and a lack of academic research and specifically Scotland-based empirical studies in the area. There is growing evidence of thevalue that design approaches can contribute in public sector contexts; however, its demand in the UK public sector has not scaled up as expected. With the purpose of identifying opportunities for enhancing design’s uptake in public sector contexts, this research studies how public sector professionals evaluate the application of design strategies and methods in their work, and what shapes their decisions.

Rather than focusing on the outputs and impact that mark design’s contribution within the public sector, the empirically-developed research questions within this thesis address a gap in the literature by examining public sector professionals’ uptake of design-led innovation as a process. Through the qualitative study of six design-led innovation projects undertaken by Scottish public sector organisations, this research sought to understand public sector professionals’ interactions and decision-making processes as they assess the appropriateness of introducing design strategies and methods in the particular contexts of their work, and what factors influence the construction of those perceptions and decisions.These insights are crystallised into two conceptual frameworks: firstly, describing public sector professionals’ learning and evaluation processes, and secondly, providing a taxonomy of factors influencing public sector professionals’ uptake of design strategies and methods.

The research findings reveal gaps in design communication that expose the inadequacy of one-size-fits-all representations of design to effectively communicate design to public sector professionals. Consequently, this research argues for the need to develop context specific articulations of design-led innovation approaches in terms of their role, value, strategies and methods as a means of enhancing their comprehensibility and credibility in public sector contexts. Thus, this research contributes to improving the communication and promotion of design-led innovation approaches in public sector contexts.