Some context:

I started coding since I was in 8th standard (ICSE board). My first job after college was of a PHP developer (2010). Until 2013, I was writing front-end, designing, testing and practically whatever was required to ship a feature. I transitioned to "Product Design" in 2013. In 2021, I forayed into hardware design.

It's complicated, higher-risk, needs incredible amount of depth esp. because you're now responsible for shipping almost irreversible stuff. Sketching comes easy to me, thanks to Bengali upbringing + interest + Mechanical Drawing in engineering years. But beyond just sketching concepts and detailed drawings, it requires a lot of learning!

What I'm doing to learn? I keep learning from two amazing Industrial Designers & a Design Engineer who joined us earlier this year. I keep learning from Perplexity and ChatGPT for every stupid, complication questions I have.

Additionally, books!

Here's a list of all the books I've been reading & applying to learn hardware design, build teams & specialisations and more:

Drawing practice

• How to design cars like a pro

• Start your engines

• Drive

• Mech in ink

• Sketching: The basics

• How to draw

Creators/products journeys

• How to build a car

• Havells

• Jony Ive

• Invention by James Dyson

• Titan

• Nuts & bolts

• CAD monkeys, dinosaur babies and t-shaped people

• The evolution of useful things

• Creative selection

• The Xiaomi way

• The design of everyday things

• The one device

• Samsung rising

• Dieter Rams

• Steve Jobs

• Nike: Icons

• Polestar 2

• Nike: Better is temporary

• Build

• The innovators

• Shoe Dog

• Xiaomi

• Inside Apple

• The Toyota way

• Insanely simple

Everyday hardware explainers

• Open circuits

• Smart product design

• Things come apart

• Visual factfinder

• How things work

• The way things work now

• Thing explainer

• The goal - The business graphic novel

Reference learning

• Designing interactions

• The industrial design reference + specification book

• Indian anthropometric dimensions for ergonomic design practice

• Manufacturing processes for design professionals

• Product design for manufacture and assembly

• The hardware startup

• 101 things I learned in urban design school

• 101 things I learned in engineering school

• 101 things I learned in product design school

• This is a prototype

• Product design and development

• The book of specs: For iPhone enthusiasts

• Design secrets: Products

• Design secrets: Products 2

• Marks of excellence

Inspiration

• Industrial design A-Z

• Product minimalism

• Marvel's Iron Man manual

• The art of mass effect

• Architecture competitions yearbook 2023

• Hello, South Korea

• Biomimicry

• The design book

• Palette min series (1 - 8)

• DIDI - Design idea dictionary

Research & observation

• Learn from looking

• Continuous discovery habits

• User friendly

• 100 things every designer needs to know about people

• 100 more things every designer needs to know about people

• Essential equipment for the kitchen

• The birth of Korea cool

• The art of noticing

• Cultural studies

• The hidden world of everyday design

• Hidden in plain sight

It took me about 3 years to build this library that I wish someone had made earlier. If you find this post helpful, give a shout-out on Twitter. :)