Understanding Industrial Design

With the coming flood of connected products, many UX and interaction designers are looking into hardware design, a discipline largely unfamiliar to them. If you’re among those who want to blend digital and physical design concepts successfully, this practical book helps you explore seven long-standing principles of industrial design.

Two present and former design directors at IDEO, the international design and innovation firm, use real-world examples to describe industrial designs that are sensorial, simple, enduring, playful, thoughtful, sustainable, and beautiful. You’ll learn how to approach, frame, and evaluate your designs as they extend beyond the screen and into the physical world.

• Sensorial: create experiences that fully engage our human senses
• Simple: design simple products that provide overall clarity in relation to their purpose
• Enduring: build products that wear well and live on as classics
• Playful: use playful design to go beyond functionality and create emotional connections
• Thoughtful: observe people’s struggles and anticipate their needs
• Sustainable: design products that reduce environmental impact
• Beautiful: elevate the experience of everyday products through beauty