The purpose of this first phase of a continuing research program was the development of a test of creative problem solving in general design. A design class of 186 members was divided into an experimental and control group; a non-design control group (an educational psychology class) of 45 was also tested. Multivariate interpretation of creative problem solving was developed; five test problems were selected to make up the Creative Design Test (CDT); and solutions were judged for fluency, flexibility, and originality. An acceptable scoring and interproblem reliability was achieved on the instruction, library materials, and school pride problems, but not on the laundromat and paper product problems. No construct validity was obtained from teacher ratings of creativity in class or from a comparison of design and non-design students. Predicted relationships were not supported between performance on the CDT and the amount of problem-related knowledge possessed or whether systematic or non-systematic problem solving procedures were employed. Variations in variety and originality of prior solutions examined before the test made little difference to test performance. (Author/SN)