Art of Play - Wonder by Design

101 Things I Learned in Product Design School

101 Things I Learned in Product Design School - Main image
$10 $20 In stock

Category: Architecture

An engaging, enlightening, and cleverly illustrated guide to product design, written by experienced professional designers and instructors.

Products are in every area of our lives, but just what product designers do and how they think is a mystery to most. Product design is not art, engineering, or craft, even as it calls for skills and understandings in each of these areas—along with psychology, history, cultural anthropology, physics, ergonomics, materials technology, marketing, and manufacturing. This accessible guide provides an entry point into this vast field through 101 brief, illustrated lessons exploring such areas as

• 
why all design is performed in relation to the body
• 
why every product is part of a system
• 
the difference between being clever and being gimmicky
• 
why notions of beauty are universal across cultures
• 
how to use both storytelling and argument to effectively persuade

Written by three experienced design instructors and professionals, 
101 Things I Learned® in Product Design School provides concise, thoughtful touch points for beginning design students, experienced professionals, and anyone else wishing to better understand this complex field that shapes our lives every day.

Customer Reviews (4.8 / 5 · 19 reviews)

Chloe ★★★★★

Every page hits like a mini lecture from a professor who actually worked in the field—the clever illustrations make even the trickiest ergonomics concepts click instantly. I've already applied the "form follows failure" chapter to my own sketching process, and it's changed how I look at every object

Evelyn D. ★★★★★

I flipped through it during my lunch break and ended up reading half the book in one sitting—the clever illustrations make each lesson stick in a way plain text never could. It's a perfect pick for design students, but honestly, any working designer will find themselves nodding along too.

Owen ★★★★★

The illustrations alone are worth the price—each one clarifies the design principle better than a paragraph of text could. I'm halfway through and already seeing my own projects in a new light, especially the sections on user psychology.