I found this book to be very illuminating in light of what I do (interaction design) and the books I have read recently on the latest in computational neuroeconomics, maninstream pattern recognotion theory, interaction design, visual design, industrial design, computer engineering, new marketing theory, and information design around complex systems. In fact, this book is almost a stake in the ground on how the manufacturing process, invention, and branding created the artifacts in our environment. Better than the Industrial Desig books I read 10 years ago. I think we would call these "case studies" and "use cases" in modern terminology. I mention all the fields above because every single one of them have an exact doppelganger in the past.

This book is a brilliant look at process and can be used as a research tool when looking at why something like the iPod caught on and why almost everything that has been developed at MIT in recent history (except eInk) has never gained a foothold in popular American culture. In the face of the rise of "everyware" computing, it's adoption in places like Korea and Japan, and only limited use by the rich for personal security in the US, I would say this is a must read for contemporary designers, no matter what depth of complexity their task at hand. This book predates the web, making it very enlightening in light of user-centered design in recent years.

This book looks at the relationship of genius design, corporate R+D, pop culture, the feedback loop for product innovation, and the adoption of standards around SIMPLE things. This means these case studies can be used to analyse the failures (and how failure breeds innovation, not "form follows function") of our complex information economy and embedded systems. Society has gone through it all before. And as projects become increasingly team based and open sourced (like Stanford's new d.school), just about anyone can find value in this book based within this context.

while I agree with some of the previous reviews that Petroski may overstate and repeat a little bit, this book is an excellent in depth look at the invention process as practiced by many people in parallel and in concert.

If you have any interest in Industrial Design, Interaction Design or just trivia for how object evolve this is a great read and Petroski surely knows his stuff.

I don't agree with some who call it too academic, the text is in depth, but not dry. It is not breazy or flip either...Just right*

Ideal for anyone who harbours a casual interest in forks, pins, paper clips and zippers. Not recommended for people who hate forks, pins, paper clips and zippers, or people who are obsessed with forks, pins, paper clips and zippers and already know how they came to be as they are.