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Imperial Library
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Index
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
Authors’ Note
1 | Design is a physical act.
2 | You’re always designing within a system.
3 | The apparent problem probably isn’t the real problem.
4 | If a problem is too abstract, ask what. If it’s too specific, ask why.
5 | A need is a verb.
6 | Identify the experience, not just the product.
7 | Originality isn’t Step One.
8 | Learn how everything works conceptually, if not technically.
9 | Begin with familiar objects.
10 | Novel, but not too novel. Familiar, but not too familiar.
11 | “It’s very easy to be different, but very difficult to be better.”
12 | Creativity is nonlinear.
13 | How to make a blank sheet of paper less scary
14 | Make your ideas mobile.
15 | Design needs language.
16 | An insight is more than an observation.
17 | A concept is more than an idea.
18 | A 50th percentile man is not a 50th percentile human.
19 | Turn sympathy into empathy.
20 | Front-load the design process.
21 | Explore the product personality early.
22 | Do some how work with why work and some why work with how work.
23 | It’s better to violate a boundary than to leave a gap.
24 | Form follows function . . . and much else.
25 | Three ways to conceptualize form
26 | Random hypothesis: Beauty is universal.
27 | A $25 teakettle needs to boil water, whistle, be dependable, and look appealing. A $900 kettle mostly needs to be beautiful.
28 | Make it look like what it does.
29 | Emulate nature’s functions, not its forms.
30 | Question tradition, but don’t dismiss it outright.
31 | Shapes are loaded.
32 | Elegance is the opposite of extravagance.
33 | Dissonance is desirable.
34 | Cleverness is unexpected efficiency.
35 | A playful object doesn’t have to be an object for play.
36 | A toy doesn’t have to be cute.
37 | Camp knows; kitsch doesn’t.
38 | The camera created modern art.
39 | Draw as a designer, not as an artist.
40 | How to draw a straight line
41 | Use perspective drawings for expression. Use orthographic drawings for investigation.
42 | Drawings simulate appearance. Mock-ups simulate experience.
43 | Mock up to discover, not just depict.
44 | All products move.
45 | Products perform when not in use.
46 | Make anything approximately or a few things perfectly.
47 | Understand your world in numbers.
48 | A 200-pound person isn’t twice the size of a 100-pound person.
49 | 10% thicker is 33% stronger.
50 | Recognize the gravity of the situation.
51 | A product has a right weight.
52 | “It is weight that gives meaning to weightlessness.”
53 | Details are the concept.
54 | A box is more than a box.
55 | Use your feet.
56 | Use your heads.
57 | Go partial Monty.
58 | Air in, air out.
59 | Color starts with non-color.
60 | Light tones amplify details. Dark tones amplify silhouette.
61 | White is practical. Black is sophisticated. Metal is professional.
62 | Satin is more slippery than gloss.
63 | Paint is a last resort.
64 | Use physical samples to make physical decisions.
65 | Good ergonomics doesn’t necessarily mean a perfect fit.
66 | Seating principles
67 | “A chair is the first thing you need when you don’t really need anything, and is therefore a peculiarly compelling symbol of civilization. For it is civilization, not survival, that requires design.”
68 | Give the user a fair chance to figure it out.
69 | The greater the consequence, the more physical the switch.
70 | Did what was supposed to happen happen?
71 | Software is unavoidably imperfect.
72 | It’s hard to make a thousand of something.
73 | The component with the shortest lifespan determines the product lifespan.
74 | Design the user experience through time.
75 | “I like the concept of wearing in instead of wearing out.”
76 | Pollution is a design flaw.
77 | Plastic is a property, not a material.
78 | Injection molding
79 | Retail = (BOM + labor) x 4
80 | The IKEA ecosystem
81 | Make important design explorations away from the computer.
82 | Lo-res gets more feedback.
83 | Limit your confidence in a concept to what it has earned.
84 | Match your craft to your confidence.
85 | You have a concept when you can name it.
86 | Conceptual simplicity calls for hidden complexity.
87 | Make one thing more important than everything else.
88 | If you don’t have enough answers, you aren’t asking enough questions.
89 | Keep circling back to the elemental questions.
90 | More things to do when you’re stuck
91 | There shouldn’t be a ta-da.
92 | Indicate the function; don’t just show the form.
93 | Don’t present everything you did.
94 | Use your critics to your advantage.
95 | Persuade through story, not just argument.
96 | Make your first product small and light.
97 | Use a patent to protect your business interest, not your emotional interest.
98 | People you don’t know at all may be more helpful than those you know well.
99 | Your first job only needs to be your first job.
100 | The ultimate skill isn’t a design skill; it’s the skill of understanding.
101 | Your work will look like you even if you don’t try to make it look like you.
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
Other Titles
About the Authors
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