Subject Guides: Industrial Design: Open Access Books

Open Access (OER Resources)

Design as Democratic Inquiry: Putting Experimental Civics into Practice "In Design as Democratic Inquiry, he [Carl DiSalvo] recounts a series of projects that exemplify engaged design in practice. These experiments in practice-based research are grounded in collaborations with communities and institutions.
Design Ethnography: Epistemology and Methodology "This open access book describes methods for research on and research through design. It posits that ethnography is an appropriate method for design research because it constantly orients itself, like design projects, towards social realities."
Design for the New World: From Human Design to Planet Design "Design for the New World aims to introduce a new paradigm in design and design thinking, by shifting our approach from a human perspective that is primarily focused on human scales, needs, and desires, to a planet perspective, in which design is guided by the ambition to create a balanced coexistence between humans and the other species that make up the global ecosystem."
Designing Knit Designers "Traditionally associated with craftmanship and manual work, knitwear seems a quite unusual subject of investigation for scientific research. This book places it as an integrative part of the industrial design culture where the dialogue between a productive system of excellence and the design discipline taught in universities becomes a topic of central concern."
Design Tools: A Reflection Towards the Definition of a Taxonomy "This book aims at encompassing the panorama of design tools being developed, tested and adopted by researchers and professors at the Department of Design of Politecnico di Milano. The tools are organized in a taxonomy that reflects the path of choice of a possible user in need for the right tool for a task to be performed."
Digitally Enhanced Design: Breakthrough Tools, Processes, and Expressive Potentials "The book explores evolving perspectives on furniture, interior, spatial and architectural design, providing a multifaceted view of how the design discipline and practice deal with the complex and ever-evolving interplay between the physical and the digital realms. It explores the new frontiers of digitally enhanced design, investigating how computation capabilities impact the design discipline and designers’ thinking and practice."
Industrial Design: New Frontiers "This book uncovers prospective designer techniques and methods of a new age of industrial design, whose practitioners strive to construct simple and yet complex products of the future."
We Are Not Users: Dialogues, Diversity, and Design "This book proposes that a new understanding of design could resolve that dissonance, and issues a call to reclaim and rethink the field of designing as a liberal art where diverse voices come together to shape the material world."
Circular Economy for a Sustainable Built Environment "In this course you will become familiar with circularity as a systemic, multi-disciplinary approach, concerned with the different scales, from material to product, building, city, and region."
Industrial Design Intelligence: A Cognitive Approach To Engineering "This class investigates cognitive science and technology as it is applied to the industrial design process. The class introduces prototyping techniques and approaches for objective evaluation as part of the design process."
Introduction To Design Inquiry "These are readings that were meant to be read in advance of the lectures, serving as an introduction and supplement to them."
Product Design And Development "Product Design and Development is a project-based course that covers modern tools and methods for product design and development. The cornerstone is a project in which teams of management, engineering, and industrial design students conceive, design and prototype a physical product."
Sustainable Packaging in a Circular Economy "This course is for you if you are interested in learning about sustainable packaging design. You’ll also benefit if you are a professional in the packaging industry and want to learn how to find circular opportunities in your work. Students – particularly in design – will be able to broaden their knowledge of circular design and business strategies."