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The Product Design Process in Plain Language
A plain-language tour of the stages from a vague problem to a finished product: research, ideas, prototypes, testing, refinement and preparing to make more.
Design And Materials
The Design Process
Methods designers use to get from a need to a workable product.
Defining the Problem Before Designing the Solution
How to describe a need clearly with a problem statement, so your time and materials go to the right thing instead of a solution nobody needed.
Design for Manufacture: When One Becomes Many
How designing for repeat production changes choices about parts, materials, fasteners, tolerances and assembly when a one-off project turns into a batch.
Designing for Hands and Bodies
How size, grip, reach and posture shape comfortable objects, and simple ways to apply human factors thinking to tools, handles and everyday products.
Designing Products That Can Be Repaired
How screws, access, modular parts and clear documentation make repairable design possible, with trade-offs to weigh when you design your own products.
Learning CAD Modeling Basics
What CAD modeling is for, the core ideas behind sketches, extrusions and constraints, and a realistic way for beginners to start without buying anything.
Product Safety Basics for Makers
General information on safety thinking when others will use what you make: hazards, foreseeable misuse, testing, warnings and where to seek professional advice.
Sketching Ideas Quickly
Why rough drawings help you explore many options fast, and simple idea sketching habits for makers who think they cannot draw.
Talking to Users with Simple Interviews
How to run short, informal user interviews: asking open questions, avoiding leading ones, listening well and turning notes into useful insight.
Testing a Prototype with Real People
Simple, low-cost ways to run usability testing on an early model: choosing tasks, observing without helping, recording what happens and acting on it.
Writing Clear Instructions for a Product
How good product instructions and warnings are structured: planning, order, plain wording, visuals, safety messages and testing them with real readers.
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More in design and materials
Fashion And Textiles Sustainable clothing and new textile ideas. Materials And Art How materials work and where art meets technology. Product Design Designing things for people, from accessibility to color. Prototyping Turning an idea into a testable model and learning from failure. Sewing And Textile Skills Hands-on skills for making, mending and reworking cloth. Materials In Practice Choosing, joining and finishing the materials you actually use.