This comprehensive guide is for anyone who wants to design with purpose, empathy, and impact. Rather than rushing to solutions, it champions the art of framing and refining a problem, revealing how powerful design begins with asking smarter questions. It takes readers on a journey from uncovering user needs to creating and validating meaningful solutions.
This is more than a book on design; it is a roadmap for creating solutions that matter. Built around the new GRIP framework (Gather, Refine, Ideate, Produce), the book emphasizes designing with people, not just for them. It introduces themes including design for all, empathy, creativity and ideation, sustainability, and ethics while offering hands-on tools such as storytelling, persona building, advanced prototyping techniques, including AR/VR testing. From shaping lovable products to aligning designs with market needs, the book combines the artistry of empathy with the rigor of engineering.
The book is ideal for professionals and students of design, engineering, and innovation as well as educators, entrepreneurs, and early-career practitioners. It covers many different methods and is intended to spark a mindset shift so that readers will be equipped to build better products to shape experiences that are accessible and delightful to use.
Preface
Chapter 1 The Wild Terrain of Design
Chapter 2 Exploring Human Limits and Capabilities
Chapter 3 Design for Diverse Populations
Chapter 4 Fostering Empathy in Design: Methods, Data and Principles
Chapter 5 Defining the Problem: Sharpening the Focus Through Framing
Chapter 6 Ideation and Invention
Chapter 7 Prototyping
Chapter 8 Prototype Selection and Testing
Chapter 9 Design for X and Product Architecture
Chapter 10 From Design to Specification: Strategies for People- Centric
Implementation
Chapter 11 Design Verification and Validation
Chapter 12 Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship
Dr. Ravindra Goonetilleke is a Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. Prior to joining Khalifa University, UAE, Dr. Goonetilleke was a Professor and held a joint appointment in the Division of Integrative Systems and Design and the Department of Industrial Engineering and Decision Analytics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His research focuses on Ergonomics and Human Factors Engineering and their applications on Product Design and Human-Computer Interaction. Outside of this, Dr. Goonetilleke is recognized as a leading researcher on the ergonomics of footwear.
Alma Maria Jennifer Gutierrez is a Full Professor of the Department Industrial and Systems Engineering at De La Salle University, Philippines, and an ASEAN engineer. She is President of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society of the Philippines (HFESP) and has held leadership positions in the University as the Department Chairperson of the Industrial and Systems Engineering (AY 2016-2019; AY2006-2007) and Vice-Chairperson (AY2010-2012; AY2003-2006). She is engaged in ergonomics consultancy on Safety Productivity Enhancement through the Ergonomics Development (SPEED) program to the government and private sector.
Dr. Emily Y.L. Au currently works as Operations Director in a fabless semiconductor company eTopus, USA. She applies a User-Centered Design (UCD) approach to enterprise User Experience (UX) to create workflows and operations for continuous improvement; and to manage change into standard best practices in a startup company. Apart from her full-time job, she has been teaching part-time (Courses: Design Methodology, Discovering Design, Global Product Development) at Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation at UC Berkeley, USA, since 2017. Prior to Dr. Aus current positions, she was an Assistant Professor of Engineering Education at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) from 2011 to 2016.
Dr. Ameersing Luximon is currently Professor of Practice at Georgia Tech Shenzhen Institute/Tianjin University, China PR, and Adjunct Associate Professor in School of Design at the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. He is also president of the Hong Kong Ergonomics society (HKES) and council member of the IEA. Previously, Dr Luximon worked as Associate Professor of Fashion Design in Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). Dr Luximon completed his PhD from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He has more than 20 years working experience in academia and industry. He was the program chair for the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (USA) Product design Technical Group (2011, 2012). His teaching and research areas include Ergonomics in design; wearable product design; Biomechanics and health application, AI in design; social robots; and entrepreneurship, innovation, and creativity.
Dr. Yan Luximon is an Associate Professor in School of Design at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She also serves as Chair of School Research Committee, Lab Leader for Asian Ergonomics Design Lab and Deputy Discipline Leader for BA Product Design. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal papers, book chapters, patents and international conference papers. Her research interests include ergonomic design, anthropometry and its application in design, 3D digital human modelling and CAD, AI design tool and visualization, head and face related products, human computer interaction, cultural difference, statistical and mathematical models.
