"It is a human characteristic to wish to make things - to take materials and to shape, join and finish them, creating products. And, from the earliest flint knives to the most recent examples of consumer electronics, the form is chosen not only to provide the function but also to create the aesthetics and associations - the perception - of the product. Materials play a central role in this. Their selection to provide technical function is well studied and methods and software tools to achieve it are established and widely available. Their selection to create the aesthetics and associations - the ways in which the product is seen, how it feels and sounds, how it is perceived - is less easy to analyze, yet in today's competitive market, it is as essential a part of successful design as the functionality itself." "This book explores the role of materials and processes in product design, with emphasis on the ways in which they can be used to create the aesthetics and associations of the product, and the ways in which it is perceived. The methods are supported by some 100 profiles of materials and processes, emphasizing the attributes most relevant for product design."--Jacket.