Product Design and the Role of Representation: Foundations for Design Thinking in Practice
ISBN: 9781003227694
Platform/Publisher: Taylor & Francis / CRC Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Unlimited; Download: Unlimited



"This book responds to the expression 'all you always wanted to know about design representation but didn't know where to ask'. Indeed, the book is a thematic guide to design representation, and the amount of information about design representations it holds is phenomenal."

Professor Gabriela Goldschmidt

Technion - Israel Institute of Technology

This book extends understanding of the design process by exploring design representation types and examining them as theoretical constructs. It shows how fidelity and ambiguity inform the creative act of design, and considers design thinking through the lens of design representation.

Design thinking is a method that has the potential to stimulate and enhance creativity. This book enhances understanding of what constitutes design thinking, why it is used and how it can be applied in practice to explore and develop ideas. The book positions a particular type of thinking through design representations, exploring this from its roots in design history, to the types of thinking in action associated with contemporary design practice. A taxonomy of design representations as a scaffold to express design intent, is applied to real world case studies.

Product Design and the Role of Representation will be of interest to those working in or studying product development, engineering design and additive manufacturing.


Eujin Pei is the Programme Director for the BSc Product Design and BSc Product Design Engineering courses at Brunel UniversityLondon. He is a Chartered Engineer (CEng) and a Chartered Technological Product Designer (CTPD). He has worked forcompanies including Motorola, Inc., LM Ericsson, Sennheiser GmbH & Co. KG, and Rentokil Initial. Eujin is a Member of theInstitution of Engineering Designers (MIED), Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and Fellow of the Royal Society forthe Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA). He is a Member of the Design Research Society (DRS), and Co-founder of theInclusive Design Special Interest Group. Eujin's research interests centres on product innovation, design thinking, designrepresentation and the use of digital prototyping.James Andrew Self is Associate Professor of industrial design, School of Design and Human Engineering and Director of theDesign Practice Research Lab (dpr.Lab), UNIST. He holds a doctorate in industrial design and worked for several years within thedesign industry both in London and Sydney, Australia. Prof. Self is a commentator for Core77, and currently holds AssociateEditorships and committee positions for a number of international journal and conference publications. Design works and researchcontributions include numerous publications, international design awards, patents, articles, design exhibitions, seminars andworkshops. Research and design projects include a broad field of interests, from design-driven product innovation to design thinkingand design representation. Research and design activities attract funding from various governmental and industry sponsors.
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