Design is a cognitive activity that many parameters involved to the process. Because of the complex structure of design, design education is also difficult to frame. In the period of architectural design education, first year is the special term that students not only challenge with the complexity of design and learning design, they also experience difficulties because of the changed learning habits, education methods and lack of skill and knowledge on design. Therefore, this descriptive study focused on Introductory Design Studios in Architecture Faculty of IZTECH in order to understand how the beginner design students respond to learning design exercises in this challenging period. Under the title of the main research question, the design processes of the students according to the simple and complex assignments were analyzed, their responses were evaluated in accordance with the assignment goals, the results were discussed and compared. In the data gathering process, AR101 Introduction to Design, fall 2016-2017 studio was directly observed in the natural studio environment during the semester. Among the students, a focus group were set up in order to follow their design processes closely and five students were chosen for the case study from the focus group. In addition to the research tools, questionnaires and interviews were conducted with both students and instructors. The results of this study reveal the differences between responses of the beginner design students to the assignments, the changes in the responses according to the simplicity and complexity of the assignments and the influential factors in their design processes and design learning.