100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿

Fast overnight NZ delivery 🚀 Don't forget Father's Day is this Sunday 📅

The Design Way

Intentional Change in an Unpredictable World
Series: The MIT Press
4.19 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 116 ratings, 12 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
The Design Way explores design as a fundamental human practice that shapes technologies, organisations, processes, systems, environments, and modes of thinking. Erik Stolterman and Harold G. Nelson present design as a distinct culture of inquiry and action rather than merely a set of practical techniques. The book outlines core ideas that underpin this design culture, applicable across diverse fields including architecture, graphic design, organisational design, education, interaction, and healthcare. This second edition features expanded text and new visual schemas that deepen the conceptualisation of design inquiry.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$7500
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book is ideal for students, educators, and professionals interested in the philosophy and cultural significance of design across multiple disciplines. It appeals to those seeking a broad, conceptual framework for understanding design beyond practical implementation.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

A book that lays out the fundamental concepts of design culture and outlines a design-driven way to approach the world.

The first edition of The Design Way changed how I conduct my work in education; the second edition is even stronger. Far from a mere list of 'how to's.' it helps develop a way of seeing, thinking, understanding, and acting with reciprocity that helps people become more client-centered, creative, and adaptive to others' ever-changing environments. I highly recommend this book and thank the authors for their outstanding work. -- John D. Bransford, Shauna C. Larson Professor of the Learning Sciences, University of Washington The second edition of The Design Way is the most useful and enjoyable book on design that I have yet read. It digs very deep into the intellectual and historical foundations of design thought in order to generate practical wisdom. If only the first chapter of this book was required reading for every first-year MBA student, the business world would be a much better place. And if it was also required reading for every science and technology policy person, we would actually have useful innovation policy. Harold Nelson and Erik Stolterman have produced a genuinely great contribution. -- Roger Martin, Dean, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

A book that lays out the fundamental concepts of design culture and outlines a design-driven way to approach the world. Humans did not discover fire—they designed it. Design is not defined by software programs, blueprints, or font choice. When we create new things—technologies, organizations, processes, systems, environments, ways of thinking—we engage in design.

With this expansive view of design as their premise, in The Design Way Harold Nelson and Erik Stolterman make the case for design as its own culture of inquiry and action. They offer not a recipe for design practice or theorizing but a formulation of design culture's fundamental core of ideas. These ideas—which form "the design way"—are applicable to an infinite variety of design domains, from such traditional fields as architecture and graphic design to such nontraditional design areas as organizational, educational, interaction, and healthcare design.

The text of this second edition is accompanied by new detailed images, "schemas" that visualize, conceptualize, and structure the authors' understanding of design inquiry. The text itself has been revised and expanded throughout, in part in response to reader feedback.

Series: The MIT Press

View all
  • The Outer Limits of Reason
    An exploration of the scientific limits of knowledge that challenges our deep-seated beliefs about our universe, our rationality, and ourselves. Many books explain what is known about the universe. This book investigates what cannot be known. Rather than exploring the amazing facts that science, mathematics, and reason have revealed to us, this work studies what science, mathematics, and reason tell...
    Paperback
    $5500
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Divining a Digital Future
    A sociotechnical investigation of ubiquitous computing as a research enterprise and as a lived reality. Ubiquitous computing (or ubicomp) is the label for a "third wave" of computing technologies. Following the eras of the mainframe computer and the desktop PC, ubicomp is characterised by small and powerful computing devices that are worn, carried, or embedded in the world around us....
    Paperback
    $10400
    Available
    Ships in 2-3 weeks
  • How to Write a Thesis
    Umberto Eco's wise and witty guide to researching and writing a thesis, published in English for the first time. By the time Umberto Eco published his best-selling novel The Name of the Rose, he was one of Italy's most celebrated intellectuals, a distinguished academic, and the author of influential works on semiotics. Some years before that, in 1977, Eco published...
    Paperback
    $6000
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Beyond the Self
    Converging and diverging views on the mind, the self, consciousness, the unconscious, free will, perception, meditation, and other topics.Buddhism shares with science the task of examining the mind empirically; it has pursued, for two millennia, direct investigation of the mind through penetrating introspection. Neuroscience, on the other hand, relies on third-person knowledge in the form of scientific observation. In this...
    Paperback
    $7500
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Design Way
    A book that lays out the fundamental concepts of design culture and outlines a design-driven way to approach the world. Humans did not discover fire—they designed it. Design is not defined by software programs, blueprints, or font choice. When we create new things—technologies, organizations, processes, systems, environments, ways of thinking—we engage in design. With this expansive view of design as...
    Paperback
    $7500
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • How Smart Machines Think
    Everything you want to know about the breakthroughs in AI technology, machine learning, and deep learning—as seen in self-driving cars, Netflix recommendations, and more. The future is here—self-driving cars are on the streets, an algorithm gives you movie and TV recommendations, IBM's Watson triumphed on Jeopardy over puny human brains, computer programs can be trained to play Atari games. But...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Innovating
    Discover the MIT-developed, "doer's approach" to innovation with this guide that reveals you don't need an earth-shattering idea to create a standout product, service, or business—just a hunch that you can scale up to impact. Innovation is the subject of countless books and courses, but there's very little out there about how you actually innovate. Innovation and entrepreneurship are not...
    Hardback
    Sold Out
  • Spotify Teardown
    An innovative investigation of the inner workings of Spotify that traces the transformation of audio files into streamed experience. Spotify provides a streaming service that has been welcomed as disrupting the world of music. Yet such disruption always comes at a price. Spotify Teardown contests the tired claim that digital culture thrives on disruption. Borrowing the notion of "teardown" from...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Evolving Animal Orchestra
    A music researcher's quest to discover other musical species. Even those of us who can't play a musical instrument or lack a sense of rhythm can perceive and enjoy music. Research shows that all humans possess the trait of musicality. We are a musical species—but are we the only musical species? Is our musical predisposition unique, like our linguistic ability?...
    Hardback
    Sold Out
  • How Attention Works
    How we filter out what is irrelevant so we can focus on what we need to know. We are surrounded by a world rich with visual information, but we pay attention to very little of it, filtering out what is irrelevant so we can focus on what we think we need to know. Advertisers, web designers, and other "attention architects"...
    Hardback
    Sold Out
  • SITELESS
    An attempt to free architecture from site and program constraints and to counter the profusion of ever bigger architecture books with ever smaller content. Some may call it the first manifesto of the twenty-first century, for it lays down a new way to think about architecture. Others may think of it as the last architectural treatise, for it provides a...
    Paperback
    Sold Out

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780262526708

Publisher: MIT Press Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 29 August 2014

Country: United States

Imprint: MIT Press

Edition: second edition

Illustration: 102 figures; 102 Illustrations

Audience: Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 14.0mm

Width: 152.0mm

Height: 229.0mm

Weight: 0g

Pages: 296

About the Author

Harold G. Nelson was 2009-2010 Nierenberg Distinguished Professor of Design at Carnegie Mellon University and is currently Senior Instructor in the Graduate School of Business and Public Policy at the Naval Postgraduate School and President of the Advanced Design Institute. Erik Stolterman is Professor in the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University Bloomington, and the coauthor of Thoughtful Interaction and The Design Way (second edition), both published by the MIT Press.

More from Arts & Culture

View all
  • Dylan's Pick
    Bold Types
    A tribute to 32 truly independent bookshops throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, from north of Auckland down to Dunedin, and coast to coast. Jane Ussher's photographs show every bookstore in its unique nature - including behind the counter, smoko rooms, the mess which tells the hardworking story behind the joy of matching books with customers. Jemma Moreira's careful editing has crafted...
    Hardback
    $5999
    Elsewhere:
    $7000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Home Again
    Join rock-legend, former Shihad frontman and lead singer of The Adults, Jon Toogood in this unflinching and no-holds-barred memoir Home Again.This is more than a rock story. Toogood looks back on a 37-year career that helped define New Zealand rock music, and the personal cost that came with it. From a music-obsessed childhood in Wellington to the deafening roar of international stages, this...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Disney Moana: The Official Cookbook
    New Release
    Disney Moana: The Official Cookbook
    Embark on a culinary adventure with Moana of Motunui with Pacific recipes inspired by Moana and Moana 2! After a long day of sailing to see how far you’ll go or keeping the demigod Maui out of trouble with Te Fiti, catch a break with the delicious dishes in Moana: The Official Cookbook! Featuring more than 50 recipes spanning the...
    Hardback
    $4499
    Elsewhere:
    $5299
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Buy to Win
    Did I Ever Tell You This?
    In this unexpected memoir, written in a creative burst of just a few months in 2022, Sam Neill tells the story of how he became one of the world’s most celebrated actors, who has worked with everyone from Meryl Streep to Isabel Adjani, from Jeff Goldblum to Sean Connery, from Steven Spielberg to Jane Campion. By his own account, his...
    Paperback
    $3799
    Elsewhere:
    $4500
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • This Angry Pen of Mine
    This Angry Pen of Mine by Layne Staley invites you to dive into the untold creative world of Layne Staley, the legendary voice behind Alice in Chains. This extraordinary collection showcases his handwritten lyrics, deeply personal poetry, stunning original artwork, rare photos, fan tributes, and so much more. Step into the world of Layne Staley like never before. For the...
    Hardback
    $7299
    Elsewhere:
    $8999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • They Bloom Because of You
    Bestselling author and Instagram sensation Jessica Urlichs returns with a new collection of beautifully observed poems about the ever-evolving journey of motherhood - the hard, the magic and the fleeting. ‘A raw and honest read that makes you feel seen and understood in a way that will bring you to tears.’ - Hilary Swank ‘A book to keep close and...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3600
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • On Sale
    14% off
    Leaves of Grass
    A collectible new Penguin Classics series offers beautiful, slim, clothbound editions of ten favourite poets. In 1855, Walt Whitman published his first collection of poetry, Leaves of Grass. The volume received great praise from leading Transcendentalist poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. This encouragement led to what would become a lifelong project, as Whitman expanded and rewrote the volume until his death...
    Hardback
    $1900
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • On Sale
    37% off
    Great Writers and the Cats who Owned Them
    Throughout history, cats and writers have bonded together in a magical combination of comfort, companionship and inspiration. The famous authors featured here range from Samuel Johnson, whose cat Hodge dined on oysters, and Edward Lear, whose charismatic cat Foss was missing half his tail, to Margaret Mitchell, L. M. Montgomery and Dorothy L. Sayers, who rescued her kitten Blitz from...
    Hardback
    $2500
    Usually:
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Buy to Win
    The Odyssey
    The Odyssey by Homer is a monumental epic that has enthralled readers for centuries with its rich tapestry of adventure and human struggle. It chronicles the perilous journey of Odysseus, the cunning King of Ithaca, as he strives to return home after the fall of Troy. During this ten-year odyssey, Odysseus confronts myriad dangers, both natural and supernatural, that test...
    By Homer
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Beautiful Chaos
    The Instant Sunday Times Bestseller Selected poems from bestselling author and Instagram poet, Jessica Urlichs. 'These words awaken the magic of life by celebrating the ordinary.' - Giovanna Fletcher Motherhood is messy and beautiful, and hard and humbling. We adore our children and sometimes we miss ourselves. Beautiful Chaos is a collection of raw, honest poems about motherhood, capturing everything...
    Paperback
    $2900
    Elsewhere:
    $3500
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Devotions
    New York Times Bestseller, chosen as Oprah's 'Books That Help Me Through' for Oprah's Book Club Chosen by Poetry Book Society as their special commendation 'No matter where one starts reading, Devotions offers much to love, from Oliver's exuberant dog poems to selections from the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Primitive, and Dream Work, one of her exceptional collections. Perhaps more important,...
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Odyssey
    The great epic of Western literature, translated by the acclaimed classicist Robert Fagles. A Penguin Classic Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, presents us with Homer's best-loved and most accessible poem in a stunning modern-verse translation. "Sing to me of the...
    By Homer
    Paperback
    $3500
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.