Product & Industrial Design

Starting your research

Starting your Research

Encyclopedias, handbooks and subject specific dictionaries will help provide useful background information, as well as terms to use when searching the databases. For example:

Buxton, W. (2007). Sketching user experiences: Getting the design right and the right design. San Francisco, CA: Elsevier/Morgan Kauffmann.	Bramston, D. (2009). Idea searching.. Lausanne: AVA Academia.
Moore, D. J. (2007). Design and the creative process. Clifton park, NY: Thomson Delmar Learning.	Seider, W. D. (2009).Product and process design principles: synthesis, analysis, and design.. [S.I.]: John Wiley.

A GOOGLE search can also help find background information and suggestions for more keywords.

Keywords & OPAC

Keywords & OPAC

Use OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue) to find books, journal titles and audio-visual materials in the Library. When searching for information, you need to use keywords. See below for some suggestions.

Commercial art	Computer-aided design	Industrial design
Materials	Mechanical drawing	New products management
New products marketing	Packaging design	Product design

Search OPAC now

Finding Articles Online

Finding Articles Online

The articles inside magazines, journals & periodicals are very useful sources of information. Articles are different from books because:

• they are much more up-to-date
• they are shorter (less to read!)
• they concentrate on topics or specific aspects of topics
• there are many articles being published all the time so you have more choice.

The library catalogue, OPAC, does NOT tell you what articles the Library has, only which journals or periodicals, so the easiest way to find articles is to use the online databases.

• Academic Search Premier

• Art Abstracts

• Business Source Premier

• Computer Source

• MAS Ultra: School Edition

Newspaper Articles

Newspaper articles are also very useful sources of information, and can be found in the LexisNexis Academic and the Factiva databases.

• Factiva (Dow Jones)

• LexisNexis Academic

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Click here for a list of all the databases subscribed to by TP Library.

Recommended Websites

Recommended Websites

Alvar Aalto - based on the works of Alvar Aalto. This bilingual site (English and Finnish) has divided its contents into 3 main topics – Archives, Museum and Academy, and offers drawings, letters, photographs, exhibitions, conferences and more.

Bad Human Factors Designs - scrapbook of illustrated examples of things that are hard to use because they do not follow certain design principles. Suggestions are provided on how to improve the designs.

Core 77 - for everything you need on the topic of industrial design, from articles, forums, event calendars, portfolios, job listings, as well as a database of design firms, schools, vendors and services.

IDasia.org - representing multi-disciplinary Industrial Design talents in Asia, with the focus on fostering and promoting the best and brightest on the Asian design scene. Find design articles, news, portfolios, tips and more.

Tribu Design: decorative arts & design of the 20th century - interesting and useful web resources for more than 500 designers and manufacturers… you can choose to browse by Timeline, Designer or Manufacturer. The 20th Century Database can be browsed by category such as seats, tables, desks, storage, lighting, table ware, industrial design, etc.

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