As an industrial designer, it has always been a part of our design process to include research as a partner of every step. There is research done before the project starts, while idealization commences, laying out the mechanism, internal functions and the ergonomics of the initial design, the marketability of the product, and even the right way to deliver the product’s message. The hardest way of dealing with this is the lack of visuals and commentaries about how the ideas will run and be born. So the quickest place to go for a design study besides the library is the Internet, although industrial design is still not that popular of a topic to look for on the web. As to help the students and others of the same profession, I compiled a list of wonderful industrial websites that will give any designers ease on where to get ideas, backgrounds, methods, and of course motivation and inspiration while working on their designs.
CORE77
http://www.core77.com/
http://challenges.core77.com/
Every industrial design student knows about Core77. It’s like the “House of ID”, the one website where every design ideas converge. And that’s exactly how the website presents its contents. Core77 shows the readers what they need to know, in terms of latest designs, commentary columns, news, information, hotlinks, what’s coming, and a lot more. Designers that write about designs, so you can be sure of what you read were experienced firsthand and understood by the writers. Plus, they hold competitions in what they call the Design Arena for amateurs and professionals to participate in (with most cash prizes enough to make you start a business or design firm already). It is truly a haven for us industrial designers.
