The best Industrial Design books: Reddit reviews

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

If you morbidly enjoy stories like this, this book is super interesting, it's about how minor design flaws and human error can lead to huge disasters that seem really obvious in hindsight.

> it's like they think i'm only on their site to earn rubies

They're nudging you for continuous interaction. The idea is to get you to make it a routine.

Relevant book recommendation:

https://www.amazon.com/Hooked-How-Build-Habit-Forming-Products/dp/1591847788

The best book to read as a developer is The Design of Everyday Things. If every developer read it, the software world would be a better place.

For the uninitiated - 'Hooked - how to make habit forming products' is on pretty much every start-up's bookshelf in Silicone Valley.

https://www.amazon.com/Hooked-How-Build-Habit-Forming-Products/dp/1591847788

If you want to really do your homework, start with the primary source. The name of these structures comes from Gerald K. O'Neill, and his work The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space.

I believe this book has been referenced at least once on the channel. I haven't read it myself, but you could do worse than starting there.

Commonality of design.

Both are objects meant for throwing by hand. It would follow there is an ideal size for handheld thrown objects, and therefore handheld thrown objects would be the same size.

Same reason doors you push and doors you pull have different handles and it feels wrong when the wrong handle is used for the wrong side.

Read The Design of Everyday Things to learn more.

So honestly, unless you are cutting curved profiles, there's no need to get into Fusion just yet.

I do easily 80% of my lathe work in MDI mode, typing the program directly into the controller.

In your case, you've got:

1. A facing operation;

2. An OD turning operation;

3. A spot-drilling operation;

4. A drilling operation;

5. A boring operation; and

6. A parting application.

Each one of these operations is dirt-simple to program independently by hand, once you know the OD of the stock, the diameter of the drill you will use to rough out the centre bore, and some feeds & speeds appropriate for the machine. The machinist will have guidance here.

The only thing at all "tricky" is if you want to get cute and cut chamfers/deburr with the turning, boring, and parting ops. Otherwise, this is ideal beginner g code stuff.

For now, assume:

1. That the stock is 0.625 OD;

2. You will use a 11/32" drill to cut the centre bore;

3. The tool number is the same as the op number;

4. A max depth of cut as 0.030" on turning, 0.010" on facing, 0.005" on boring;

5. Feeds of 0.015"/rev on all ops;

6. Drill pecks of 0.25" with full withdrawal per peck;

7. Parting tool is 0.15" wide and can cut 0.400" deep on the radial; and

8. Boring tool is small enough to fit the drill hole.

Many of these parameters will change on the actual machine (one in particular is a little fast) but as a first exercise, this will do.

You should have this as a reference:

https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Handbook-Third-Peter-Smid/dp/0831133473

And you team should have this as a reference as well.

https://www.amazon.com/Autocross-Win-DGs-Secrets-developing/dp/1521406987

Good luck!

Do not have any CAM software in your shop, or are just doing this one job by hand to learn? If it's the former then that's disappointing because there are many inexpensive CAM programs for simple 2D stuff .

If it's the latter, then a really good book would be CNC Programming Handbook by Peter Smid. It covers damn near everything about CNC milling and turning, from machine kinematics to G-Code.

> As this report notes, in 1980, these three sectors [healthcare, housing and education] accounted for 25% of total national spending — today, they account for more than 36%. They also account for most of the total measured inflation over this period. And without inflation in these sectors, real annual productivity — defined as GDP per capita growth — would have been an estimated 3.9% instead of 1.7%

In other words, it's three sectors that were resistant to containerization and Amazonification which are damaging the economy. Everything else got cheaper in real terms because the shipping and handling costs went way down.

The economists at the Fed interpreted this cost reduction of everything else as "inflation is low" because of how inflation is calculated, and ran low interest rates for far longer than they should have, plus QE on top of that.

This had the effect of raising the actual rate of inflation, causing what we perceive as "cost disease" in the sectors that didn't benefit from the colossal decline in shipping and handling costs. It's closing the barn door after the horse has left (and running danger of inverting the yield curve) to raise rates now; which might actually make things worse.

I'll read the rest of it after my workday, but the fact that the summary alone singles out those sectors as a drag on the economy suggests it might actually be on to something.

Hey, I just graduated from IIIT BBSR, now I'm at IIT BBSR doing research. If you need detailed guidance please PM me direct or I usually attend Quora Meetups ( Reddit BBSR subreddit is dead ) or Dev Meets in BBSR. We could meet in person for a nice chat.

Here's a short outline on what I think you should do:

Individually:

• ACM ICPC is really important. Focus on this. So is Google Code Jam.
• Focus only on C/C++/Java and Python. 4 Years won't still be enough. For making your website/portfolio you could learn HTML/CSS and JS. For some frustration and joy, add a functional language, my top pick goes to Haskell.
• Find a passion. Competitive isn't going to take forward very far as it's basically solving solved questions. It's practice. Passion in a field of CS or maybe something applied.
• Open source contributions and designing habit forming products. Check this book by Nir Eyal which goes by the same name.
• Read Code Complete 2, Pragmatic Programmer, make stackoverflow your Facebook. Don't answer if you can't, but read. Read. And code.
• Apply for Internships! Startups are nicer as the team is small so you'll learn a lot of new things.

Group/Social stuff:

• ACM ICPC is a group event. Finding 2 friends in your college won't be difficult, I guess, who share the same passion.
• Teachers aren't just bad in your college, they are present at every college. Ignore them and let's rather be graceful than sulk with remorse.
• You have the whole city to explore. Go grab an Ola/Uber and visit institutes or email Profs you want to work with. BBSR has really nice people provided you search right.

Above all, don't do something because it's the trend. Do if it's fun. Sorry for the brevity and not much of an expert advice on the job/software product market as my career is mostly research and a bit of entrepreneurship.

For the very best of times,

Ankit

Shameless plug, The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space by Gerard K. O'Neill. It's available many places, but here it is on Amazon.

The book is sort of a spinoff of O'Neill's proposal to the blue sky research groups in NASA post-Apollo. His focus was how to achieve space colonization with the technology available in the 1970s, and to provide an economic rationalization to keep it going.
The product of such colonies was simple and quite achievable: orbital solar power beamed to earth in diffuse microwave beams (the most anyone walking under one such beam would be a few degrees elevated local temperatures, because the beam would be quite broad. Plus, the transmission efficiency was as good as long-distance power cables, a bit more than 80% efficient.).
The critical unsolved problem with his plan was the cost of spacecraft launches from Earth. He had hoped the Space Shuttle and its potential spin-offs would be cheap enough, but that was impossible. Fortunately, if SpaceX's BFR holds up to expectations, his plan's financial bounds will be met.

edit: fun fact - with 1970's engineering practices and materials, the largest habitat possible at the time had the same habitable internal surface area as the entirety of Switzerland. These days, our materials are at least good enough to create something the size of Texas, with the theoretical limits going up to the land area of Russia (Siberia included).

Check out the book "Hooked"

https://www.amazon.com/Hooked-How-Build-Habit-Forming-Products/dp/1591847788

It's largely an instruction manual for how to build super addictive apps, and driving these highly emotional dopamine responses is a big part of it.

There's a great book called The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger

You can download it free here it's a really fascinating read about how influential shipping conatiner ships have been.

There is literally a very popular industry pop book called Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. This sits on the shelf of every software product team everywhere.

It does have a chapter discussing the ethics of persuasion though. It's not a terrible, evil book but that that title should tell you everything you need to know about the approach to designing user experiences and the cutthroat jostling for a larger user base.

The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman is a really good general design resource.

In fact, doors that are ambiguous in the direction in which they open are named "Norman Doors" after him.

Set Phasers on Stun: And Other True Tales of Design, Technology, and Human Error https://www.amazon.com/dp/0963617885/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_82AENY56GR4SDZPZGXPB

Yep, looks like it’s about 28 bucks used from various sellers.

Good book, reads like mini novels rather than a “textbook”

It’s both funny to read and horrifying at how seemingly small decisions have huge lethal impacts.

RF Circuit Design: Chris Bowick

Hooked and Contagious also both touch on this as well.

There are a few injection molding guides on Amazon. Here’s one that I found. Search on Amazon and other used book sites. I bet you can find something for $30.

If anyone in the app development world is perusing here I highly recommend the book "Hooked". Required reading IMO. https://www.amazon.com/Hooked-How-Build-Habit-Forming-Products/dp/1591847788

By "programming" I assume you mean gcode and not a CAM system.

"CNC Programming Handbook" by Peter Smid is the best single book I've come across on the subject of gcode programming: https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Handbook-Third-Peter-Smid/dp/0831133473

If you mean CAM then F360 probably has the most free resources, and Mastercam has the HLE which is even easier to get than F360 and has excellent cheap books by caminstructor. I would prioritize Mastercam as a professional, because it has the largest market share.

I think a couple decades.

The Box is a history of the development of containerization. Once the container ship was developed, Manhattan docks were not a good place for them to unload; all that shipping moved over to New Jersey/Port Elizabeth. There's also a secondary effect of containerization, in that you no longer needed to have factories next to the docks, so a lot of New York City light/medium manufacturing also relocated elsewhere, leaving the waterfront essentially desolate. This would have been in the 1960s.

The algo feeds what people want see. Creating bubbles where someone rarely sees anything to challenge their beliefs, be it political or otherwise. Because seeing conflicting ideas and arguments gives people discomfort. The algorithm doesn't want to create discomfort, it wants to create clicks and engagement.

Social media uses rules from gambling like never give someone the idea of a loss. Facebook won't notify you when someone unfriends you. Twitter won't notify you when someone unfollows you. There's a whole (perverted) psychological science behind it. I can highly recommend te book "Hooked" if you want to learn about it.

It is all very bad in many ways. I find it saddening you can't really agree to disagree with people anymore. At least online its a big issue. In real life not so much, people are much more reasonable. But you didn't do any of that, which is nice! I think we don't agree on many things but we can stil have a conversation without name calling. Rare but good, thank you!

https://www.amazon.com/Hooked-How-Build-Habit-Forming-Products/dp/1591847788

Yeah. There is something hilarious about an extremely highly up-voted post calling 85% of all people idiots. Presumably a decent chunk of them up-voted this post.

Also presumably the OP considers them self in at least the top 15% intelligence of all people - and they work in retail...sure guy.

A customer walking into a store they've never been to before will face some level of confusion/disorientation compared to a retail worker where that store is their entire world - they know every corner of it. Doesn't make either of them "dumb as rocks".

I worked with mechanics who struggled with pretty basic math but could take an engine apart with their eyes closed. Which of is more "intelligent"? People are people. We are good at different things.

There's an interesting book, The Design of Everyday Things, which really describes in detail how people interact with objects/environments. A big theme is that if someone is struggling to interact with your object/environment/system they aren't stupid - your thing sucks.

Hi there! I'm a UX/UI Designer and from what I've read you could have what it takes to be a UX Researcher or a UX Designer. One of the foundations of UX is Cognitive Science, the first guy to use the term "user experience" is Donald Norman who has studied (and currently teaches) Cognitive Science for years. You could try reading one of his books (one of the most well-known books in the Design field): The Design of Everyday Things to see if you're interested in the subject.

I'd also suggest maybe doing the Google UX Certification available through Coursera, it's a good introductory certification that'd get you in the right path to apply for a trainee or even an entry level job.

If you have any questions let me know, I'm 30 and I've worked in tech for the last 4 years :)

Seeing what other people have done, as others have suggested, is an absolutely great start. Also really getting to know the ins and outs of the Material Design system helps a lot, too.

However, if you really want to understand UI and UX, you have to understand the why as well.

For UX, The Design of Every Day Things is an absolutely indispensable resource. It explains why things in the world work the way we do, and how that relates to digital interfaces. For example

For UI, learn and understand basic design principles like emphasis and balance, and how to leverage the grid system & colors in Material Design to achieve those things.

One of the biggest things that I can recommend, that a lot of people sleep on, is motion provides meaning is a key principle of Material Design:

​

>Motion focuses attention and maintains continuity through subtle feedback and coherent transitions. As elements appear on screen, they transform and reorganize the environment with interactions generating new transformations.

Tools like Lottie and basic knowledge of animation principles can not only enhance the "polish" of your application but really help reinforce how the application works.

For an example of what all of this looks like when it works together:

Imagine a fragment that slides onto the screen from the right side of the viewport. The Fragment itself has an elevation, which provides a drop shadow in Material Design. This creates a visual connection to the idea of a "material" like swiping one piece of paper onto another. The motion and visual accents also suggest the affordance of being able to also swipe the fragment off in the opposite direction as you would a piece of paper. No training is necessary, the user understands what to expect because of their real-life experience with tangible materials.

One of my favorite books is The Box. Its about the fascinating history of the shipping container. Prior to the container, goods were loaded into the hulls of ships and lashed down by hand. You can imagine how inefficient that was, but getting the entire industry to agree on a container standard was no small feat. Not to mention the unions and governments that had to buy into it.

I'm actually pretty much a designer turned developer, so I may have some interesting tidbits of information for you.

1. Designing something is more about getting a 'feel' for something, rather than quantifying things (unless you're dealing with UX directly). Making sure that the client has a good feel on the representation and symbolism on something will be what you're doing most rather than simply churning algorithms.

2. Learn the Laws of UX. They come with neat little posters as well that you can print out and hang around your office. Some of these 'laws' are things that you will see daily.

3. Get into the habit of Wireframing/Prototyping first before moving onto a solid design. Unlike programming, most of the time if you dive head first into making a detailed design, some — if not all — of your time after will be spent ripping things out, re-arranging stuff, changing sizes, layouts, etc. which could've been avoided by just prototyping first.

4. I recommend this book to everyone who is looking to enter design The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman, it will teach you to re-evaluate the world around and understand why things are designed the way the are. It gets the creative side of your brain moving and I highly recommend it.

There's actually an entire book on the topic, and it's great.

https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expanded/dp/0465050654

You're not going to fix every idiot, but you can make your intentions very clear.

If you want to know more about the design of parts being made with Injection molding, this book is a good place to start Plastic Part Design for Injection Molding 2E: An Introduction

If you want more technical breakdown of the actual mold making, this book by David Kazmer is great. Injection Mold Design Engineering 2E