Designers of private homes have often been given short shrift by the historians of architecture, who tend to focus on grander and more impressive structures: skyscrapers, monuments, museums and the like. In some sense this would appear perfectly appropriate; public...

Forty years ago, personal computing was a niche hobby for enthusiasts willing to spend hours tinkering with parts, something like building a ham radio kit. Mentioning a “computer” in the business world at that time would conjure up the image of an entire room full of...

In this series we’ve discovered the stories of successful people who struggled to make their mark on the world. These struggles have often been bound up with prominent disadvantages that many of us are familiar with: poverty, obscurity, prejudice and other...

Industrial design is a field that many of us don’t consider often, even though it affects how we live and work every day. From the chairs that keep us comfortable to the coffee mugs that keep us awake, the products we use are all the result of someone’s design ideas....

The conditions of modern office work have made many familiar with the term “ergonomics," which refers to the study of making working conditions as comfortable and conducive to work as possible. Central to this pursuit is the idea that both the workers’ tools and the...

The humble yo-yo has existed in some form since the days of Ancient Greece and has appeared independently in cultures across the world. For millennia it was simply a wheel attached to a length of string so that it could be twirled or thrown and then caught again....