Study Guides: Product Design: Home

Welcome

This guide helps Product Design students with their studies. Learn how to:

Plan your search
Find resources and information for your subjects
Reference properly for your course.

Key resources for Product Design

Academic sources

ProQuest the Arts A database for books, journal articles and more, covering the subjects of art, design, social science & music.
Design and Applied Arts Index The DAAI had research, news & conference papers on design, industrial design & craft
ScienceDirect ScienceDirect has journal article content in areas such as industrial & building materials (e.g. passive thermal design).

Materials, software & images

WGSN LIfestyle and Interiors Not just an image database WGSN contains magazine style articles covering trends in interior design, furnishings and new materials and technologies.
LinkedIn Learning Offers more than 1,400 courses at different level including product design, manufacturing and CAD training.
ArtStor Contains photographs of buildings, furnishings and some building plans, as well as art and design objects going back to prehistory.

Patents, standards & statistics

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) The ABS is the main collector of statistics on many aspects of Australian society, economy, industry and culture.
Statista Contains data & statistics. Great for finding graphs, charts & infographics.

Resource types

Books

Useful for providing an overview of a topic or issue. Contains background information and context and is very useful as a starting point for research - especially if you are new to a topic!

Journal Articles

Contains the latest research on very specific topics and often contains in-depth analysis. Journal articles are published more quickly than books so can be used to find more up to date information.

Reports

Often contain specific information about a particular issue, event, industry area, region, trend or market. Most reports are written by or for governments, organisation or industry areas.

Magazines

Many industries produce magazines that contain articles with insights and discussions of specific industry trends & developments, or showcase new works or innovations from people working in the industry. They can be found online or in print, and can be used to find information about an industry.

Product Design: Home