Design Research

For in-depth research help, including tips and tools, visit the Art & Design Research Guide, which has links to other LUCAD guides as well! This guide has some tips specific to design and visual research!

For resources to help with finding, citing, and legally using visual media, check out the Visual Media Guide

When doing research, try starting with @LL Search, it searches everything @ Lesley Library, including journal databases, book catalogs, eBook libraries, encyclopedia entries, newspaper articles, and streaming media!

Keep scrolling for research tips and tricks!  Keep in mind that there are different categories of information, and as a designer you often need to look for popular, trade, and scholarly sources!  You can't tell if something is reliable information based on where you found it, you have to look into the author to see if they are an expert, so you can find a lot of reliable information for free on the web in addition to searching for library resources that we pay for.  Google searching is easier because they can tell what you're trying to say and you don't have to be as careful about keywods, but the library pays for a bunch of stuff you can't find for free on the web, so it's important to do both!