Product design books
Product design books to start from. Open one to see books like it, or tell BookSense what you loved for four picks made for you.
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New to the genre? These 5 are the books to read first.
The Psychology of Everyday Things
Donald A. NormanExplains affordances, signifiers and the gulf between what a designer intends and what a user can work out, using ordinary doors, stoves and appliances. Later reissued as The Design of Everyday Things.
Designing for People
Henry DreyfussA working industrial designer's account of human factors, using anthropometric charts and his own projects to set out how products should fit human bodies and habits.
Design for the Real World
Victor J. PapanekArgues that designers should direct their skills toward social needs and the developing world rather than consumer novelty. It is a central text for socially engaged design.
The Evolution of Useful Things
Henry PetroskiTraces how familiar objects such as forks, paper clips and the zipper changed through small incremental improvements, showing that failure and revision drive design.
Change by Design
Tim BrownPresents design thinking as a method for innovation in business, based on empathy, prototyping and iteration, and is widely used in management courses.
Chosen and described with AI from our notes on the genre.
More product design books
- Cradle to Cradle
Cradle to CradleWilliam McDonough - Total Design
Total DesignStuart Pugh - Sketching User Experiences
Sketching User ExperiencesBill Buxton - Twentieth Century Design
Twentieth Century DesignJonathan M. Woodham - Industrial Design for EngineersIndustrial Design for EngineersW. H. Mayall
- The Green Imperative
The Green ImperativeVictor J. Papanek - Emotional Design
Emotional DesignDonald A. Norman - Hooked
HookedNir Eyal - User Friendly
User FriendlyCliff Kuang - Mid-Century Modern Complete
Mid-Century Modern CompleteDominic Bradbury - Change by design
Change by designBrown, Tim2009 - Dieter Rams
Dieter RamsKlaus Klemp2020