Watches Tell More Than Time: Product Design, Information, and the Quest for Elegance

From Audis to iMacs, Beetles to palm-tops, the design secrets behind some of the biggest business success stories of all times

"Del Coates has written a definitive playbook for product managers on how to cultivate winning design leadership strategies."­­Betty Baugh, President of the Industrial Designers Society of America

In Watches Tell More Than Time, awardwinning designer and mentor Del Coates explains the importance of product design for businesspeople and other nondesigners. From an explanation of the physiology of our responses to product design, to secrets of achieving harmony and elegance, to the impact of computer-assisted modeling on modern design, Coates covers the topic from every angle, using real-life product design case studies to illustrate his points. A lively and accessible exploration of the fascinating world of product design, written by an internationally acknowledged master, Watches Tell More Than Time will appeal to managers and executives, marketing professionals, and design junkies interested in the subject.

Del Coates is a professor of design in the world famous San Jose State University design department. He has worked as an industrial designer, on corporate staffs, and as a consultant on a broad range of product, including consumer products, furniture (as a member of the renowned Herman Miller design team), automobiles (he coined the product strategy and the name for Nissan Maxima), and computers (applying his methods, he contributed to the design of only the second computer to be added to the MOMA's permanent collection). Del lectures often and widely around the world, most recently this summer as an invited guest for DaimlerChrysler AG's research and development group, at the University of Sunderland in England, and at the ISATA Conference on Automotive Technology in Vienna. He teaches each summer at the University of Michigan's Human Factors Engineering Conference and chairs product design sessions at the Silicon Valley Ergonomics Institute's meetings. He writes a regular column for IDSA journal and has published a number of seminal articles in a variety of journals and professional publications. In addition to his teaching and speaking, Del consults to many of the world's top companies including Unisys, Daewoo, Mooney Aircraft, Nissan, General Motors, Peterbilt, Hewlett Packard, Rockwell International, Tandy, Black & Decker, Kodak, General Electric, NCR, Owens-Corning, Pitney Bowes, and Xerox.