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

1. How to design cars like a pro

2. Start your engines

3. Drive

4. Mech in ink

5. Sketching: The basics

6. How to draw

Creators/products journeys

1. How to build a car

2. Havells

3. Jony Ive

4. Invention by James Dyson

5. Titan

6. Nuts & bolts

7. CAD monkeys, dinosaur babies and t-shaped people

8. The evolution of useful things

9. Creative selection

10. The Xiaomi way

11. The design of everyday things

12. The one device

13. Samsung rising

14. Dieter Rams

15. Steve Jobs

16. Nike: Icons

17. Polestar 2

18. Nike: Better is temporary

19. Build

20. The innovators

21. Shoe Dog

22. Xiaomi

23. Inside Apple

24. The Toyota way

25. Insanely simple

Everyday hardware explainers

1. Open circuits

2. Smart product design

3. Things come apart

4. Visual factfinder

5. How things work

6. The way things work now

7. Thing explainer

8. The goal - The business graphic novel

Reference learning

1. Designing interactions

2. The industrial design reference + specification book

3. Indian anthropometric dimensions for ergonomic design practice

4. Manufacturing processes for design professionals

5. Product design for manufacture and assembly

6. The hardware startup

7. 101 things I learned in urban design school

8. 101 things I learned in engineering school

9. 101 things I learned in product design school

10. This is a prototype

11. Product design and development

12. The book of specs: For iPhone enthusiasts

13. Design secrets: Products

14. Design secrets: Products 2

15. Marks of excellence

Inspiration

1. Industrial design A-Z

2. Product minimalism

3. Marvel's Iron Man manual

4. The art of mass effect

5. Architecture competitions yearbook 2023

6. Hello, South Korea

7. Biomimicry

8. The design book

9. Palette min series (1 - 8)

10. DIDI - Design idea dictionary

Research & observation

1. Learn from looking

2. Continuous discovery habits

3. User friendly

4. 100 things every designer needs to know about people

5. 100 more things every designer needs to know about people

6. Essential equipment for the kitchen

7. The birth of Korea cool

8. The art of noticing

9. Cultural studies

10. The hidden world of everyday design

11. 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. :)