Resources

There are many, many places to look for inspiration and knowledge. Here are some of my favourite:-

Design

Engineering

https://www.theengineer.co.uk/
https://www.engc.org.uk/
http://www.imeche.org/
http://www.themanufacturer.com/
https://www.eef.org.uk/

Publications

The Fundamentals of Product Design draws on my experiences as a designer, my experiences in working with students over many years, and lessons learned from working with industry and research as an academic, and emerged out of the frustration of not being able to find or recommend one course book that captured the essence and scope of design. This 2nd edition [2016] also layed out the design process in the same sequence that I established to deliver design teaching at Brighton University. This process is:-

RESEARCH – a problem until you know the basics of what is required to solve it, and have some unique insights to make it innovative.

IDEATE – Be creative in generating hundreds of possible soutions. Sketch, model and iterate those solutions until they are optimised, then be decisive and objective in just taking the best 1 (or 2) forward

DEVELOPE – Bring the idea to life using a knowledge of human factors and engineering know how to ensure the product performs to the maximum possible then manufacture that design as cheaply and as safely as it can be.

LAUNCH – ensure that your design gets the best sales it can through attention to issues such as costing, branding and protection against copying.

It may not be rocket science (although parts of it may be depending on the project) but even the simplest project can be challenging given the scope of work that may be entailed, the speed required in the face of fast moving and competitive markets, and the complexity of information and communication required. I hope the book brings some sense of that, but at the same time shows the exhilerating scope of the challenge and the joy of success when its done well.