Product Design and the Role of Representation: Foundations for Design Thinking in Practice

"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 University London. He is a Chartered Engineer (CEng) and a Chartered Technological Product Designer (CTPD). He has worked for companies including Motorola, Inc., LM Ericsson, Sennheiser GmbH & Co. KG, and Rentokil Initial. Eujin is a Member of the Institution of Engineering Designers (MIED), Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA). He is a Member of the Design Research Society (DRS), and Co-founder of the Inclusive Design Special Interest Group. Eujin’s research interests centres on product innovation, design thinking, design representation and the use of digital prototyping.

James Andrew Self is Associate Professor of industrial design, School of Design and Human Engineering and Director of the Design Practice Research Lab (dpr.Lab), UNIST. He holds a doctorate in industrial design and worked for several years within the design industry both in London and Sydney, Australia. Prof. Self is a commentator for Core77, and currently holds Associate Editorships and committee positions for a number of international journal and conference publications. Design works and research contributions include numerous publications, international design awards, patents, articles, design exhibitions, seminars and workshops. Research and design projects include a broad field of interests, from design-driven product innovation to design thinking and design representation. Research and design activities attract funding from various governmental and industry sponsors.