This paper examines how to leverage the design studio learning environment throughout long-term education in order to support students to progress from tactical, well-defined, device-centric routine design, to confidently design sustainable solutions for strategic, “wicked”, and device-agnostic problems. We present a model that describes design challenge progressions in the design studio environment based on six dimensions derived from literature on design, creativity, and theories on learning. This contribution can be used as a tool for designing course progressions within – and between – series of design studio courses, and is exemplified with a four-step studio progression in a three-year undergraduate design-oriented informatics program.