[_delirium]

For a design-studies take even more on the "how things work" side, I like Herb Simon's classic The Sciences of the Artificial, which conceives of design as a science of man-made artifacts.

I also like Nigel Cross's stuff. His book Designerly Ways of Knowing (2006) is good but published in some absurdly expensive, for-libraries-only monograph series, so find it in a library rather than buying it. His more recent book, Design Thinking, is a collection of case studies with some analysis, a bit lighter but also good (and not $149: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1847886361/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...)