Deconstructing Product Design: Exploring the Form, Function, Usability, Sustainability, and Commercial Success of 100 Amazing Products

by William Lidwell, Gerry Manacsa

What makes a product successful? How it looks? The way it functions? Its ease of use? Or do factors like price and marketing dominate? In a quest to find answers to these questions, Deconstructing Product Design engages readers in a process of critically analyzing a diverse collection of 100 innovative products, from well-known classics to contemporary objects of desire. New in paperback, this books aims to support critical thinking about design, facilitate discovery of patterns of success (and failure) across products, and enable designers to apply lessons learned to their own design work. Experts from multiples design disciplines contribute commentary, —Robert Blaich, industrial design —Jill Butler, graphic design —Alan Cooper, technology design —Brock Danner, architecture —Kimberly Elam, graphic design —Donald Emmite, design history —Larimie Garcia, graphic arts —Scott Henderson, product design —Kritina Holden, human factors —Robert Kingslyn, graphic design —Jon Kolko, interaction design —Lyle Sandler, experience design Continue the deconstruction at

Genres: Design, Art Design

240 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2008

Reviews

[Beth Harper · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked learning about why something was designed the way it does. It's made me think about how all kinds of things around me are designed. I spot anthropomorphic design elements much more quickly. The commentary running across the bottom of each spread sometimes offers a contrary opinion of the design. Sometimes I feel the commentators went too often for a joke rather than a critique. Wish it hadn't featured so many computers or computer peripherals.

[Tai Odunsi · Rating 4 out of 5]

one word: scale! most objects don't need it, but displaying the scale of these products to the human hand/body would have been a superb touch

[Evgenia Pradel · Rating 3 out of 5]

great book if you want to know the story of objects