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Summary: Thinking (or Not) with CAD
Review: Dr. Henderson provides a rich understanding of how real engineers really integrate pencil and paper with automated approaches. Extensive on-site studies with a clear eye help overcome the hype of CAD and highlight the many ways that visual cognition expresses itself. Those involved in developing systems to support engineering (especially design engineering), specifying and acquiring those systems, or supporting them would be well advised to read this book. The systems that we do build and buy need to work with how people really work; Henderson gives a rich description of how designers design. Engineers who have not be enamored of CAD will find their case sympathetically presented. Those whose careers have changed may have a better appreciation of why. Those who manage, train, and support engineers are the ones who most need to read this book. If you sell CAD systems, you should read this so you know what they say about you after you leave. Those of us studying practice and the role of technology might have asked for a few more tables and comparisions to help us keep the different stories and companies straight. If you like to read about design (that is, you're a fan of Henry Petroski's The Pencil), you'll enjoy the discussion of visual culture and the origins of engineering drawing customs. If you are not used to reading research, you might want to skip the first section (or come back to it later).
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