“Design Matters” is about all relevant matters pertaining to product design—generally referred to as industrial design—including aesthetics, ergonomics (also called human factors), engineering, strategic design, product planning, and marketing.

I write mostly about car design because it’s my favorite subject. Many of the articles I will post here were first published, wholly or in part, in Sports Car International, where I was Design Editor from 2002 until the magazine’s demise with the November 2008 issue. I will also post articles first written for other magazine since 1957, including Motor Trend, Road & Track, and Industrial Design (now known as ID), where I served as contributing editor for several years.

I also plan to post excerpts from a revised second edition of my book on design theory, Watches Tell More than Time (published by McGraw-Hill in 2003).

I have varied professional, educational, and teaching experience:

• Professor Emeritus of Industrial Design & Ergonomics, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA (1984-2005);
• Director of Research, GVO, a product development consultancy in Palo Alto, CA (1982-84);
• Chair, Dept. of Industrial Design, CCS (College for Creative Studies), Detroit, MI (1968-81), where I led the department to its world-class status as a school for automotive designers;
• Sr. Designer, Advanced Vehicle Concepts Dept., Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, MI (1963-68);
• Project Leader, Herman Miller, Research Division, Ann Arbor, MI (1961-62);
• Project Coordinator, General Electric Co., Industrial Design & Human Factors Sub-Section, Heavy Military Electronics Dept., Syracuse, NY (1959-61);
• Industrial Designer, Mel Boldt & Assoc., Chicago, IL (1958-59);
• Exterior Designer, Studebaker-Packard Corp. (1957-58);
• Consultant, Design Strategy, Nissan Motor Co., Tokyo, Japan (1978-84);
• Education: Art Center College of Design (Transportation Design Major) (1954-56); University of Michigan (Science Engineering/computer graphics, 1965-68), BS and MA in Industrial Design (1971 & 1973), PhD candidate in Psychology (1973-74).