When beginning a new project, a
vital part of the process before designing the piece is to research it and any
other aspects that you may not be familiar with. This part of the design
process can be invaluable, as it can develop your ideas further, or even
provide a starting point for the design process. At a later stage, if any
issues occur, it may even provide an alternative idea and help to overcome the
problem, or highlight any areas to conduct more research on for further project
development.
Quality Over Quantity
Collecting research can be long
process, with many sources of information being used, however collecting too
much information can become somewhat of a hindrance when it comes to designing
a piece of work as it can become easy to get lost in an overabundance of
information. Due to this, it is important to consider how much of the
information gathered is of vital importance to the work, determining its
quality. This information can be about the original source of the text, it’s author/writer
and their personal history and experience which are likely to have influenced
the work. It is also a good idea to research any piece of information that is
provided by the text that you do not understand, whether it is a job title, or
a location name/type. These pieces of information can become vital for the
design process as it will allow you to make the decision of keeping the work
designed accurate to its original source, or take it in a different direction.
Various Sources
There are a large variety of
sources of information available when researching for a project, some
information being collected from the original source (primary research) and
other means, such as books, documentaries, or websites (secondary research).
While using a variety of different sources of information is recommended as
they provide a great amount of information, certain types of sources are more
accurate than others, such as primary research, updated books and journals, and
some websites, however, some of the sources, and too much information from
various sources can make it difficult to determine what information is of use
during the design process. This is why it is important to collect information
from a variety of accurate and reliable sources.
Relevance
A key aspect to any research
gathered is it’s relevancy to the work being produced, as any irrelevant
information that is of no use can be disposed of, whereas anything that is
relevant or may have an impact on the production should be collected and kept
to assist with the project as it develops.
Application
Once the quality and relevance of
the research is determined, the next step is to figure out how or whether it
can be applied to the design and production processes of the project. Some of
the applicability of this information will be obvious to the designer of the
project, whereas other elements may require further thought and investigation,
which is often best achieved through the experimentation phase of the design
process. It may also help to make notes, either during the research phase or
within a sketchbook, on how the research can be applied to the project.
Referencing
When researching for any piece of
work, it is important that all sources of information are clearly listed and
presented in order to clearly demonstrate that the work is not plagiarised and
validate the accuracy of all information provided. There are many methods and
layouts to demonstrate the sources of information used, such as through Harvard
Referencing, and should be presented in the form of a bibliography and
illustration list.