The Mechanical Design Process

Book excerpt: The third edition of The Mechanical Design Process combines a practical overview of the design process with case material and real-life engineering insights. Ullman's work as an innovative designer comes through consistently, and has made this book a favorite with readers. This book conveys the "flavor" of design, addressing both traditional engineering topics as well as real-world issues like creative thinking, synthesis of ideas, visualization, teamwork, sense of customer needs and product success factors, and the financial aspects of design alternatives, in a practical and motivating manner. This text is appropriate for both the Introduction to Engineering Design course, where it helps students to learn design process thinking and planning before they get into more advanced topics, and the senior capstone design course.