Basics Product Design 01: Idea Searching examines methods of generating and identifying ideas, and teaches the reader to understand what is being observed and recorded. The book advocates a step-by-step approach to generating ideas and brainstorming. It encourages an open mind in the development of ideas and teaches the reader to always question convention. The text is accompanied by a variety of case studies and examples of work taken from the best of contemporary product design.
This is a concise,succinct and handy guide for product designers. Even though the book doesn't cover each topic in extreme detail, the information is very useful and hard to debate. I use it as a reference book- open any random page and you'll find exercises to direct ideas in a particular fashion.
The only drawback, if at all it is considered so is the choice of examples in the book. They somehow seem very obvious and some of them are very unexceptional (considering the number of alternatives known in the design world).