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Design thinking in practice: research methodology.

January 10, 2021 2021-01-10

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Project Overview 

Over the last decade, we have seen design thinking gain popularity across industries. Nielsen Norman Group conducted a long-term research project to understand design thinking in practice. The research project included 3 studies involving more than 1000 participants and took place from 2018 to 2020: 

• Intercepts and interviews with 87 participants
• Digital survey with 1067 respondents
• In-depth case study at an institution practicing design thinking 

The primary goals of the project were to investigate the following:

• How do practitioners learn and use design thinking?
• How does design thinking provide value to individuals and organizations?
• What makes design thinking successful or unsuccessful? 

This description of what we did may be useful in helping you interpret our results and apply them to your own design-thinking practice. 

Project Findings

The findings from this research are shared in the following articles and videos:

• What Is Design Thinking, Really? (What Practitioners Say) (Article) 
• How UX Professionals Define Design Thinking in Practice (Video) 
• Design Thinking: The Learner’s Journey (Article)

In This Article:

Study 1: intercepts and interviews , study 2:  digital survey, study 3: case study .

In the first study we investigated how UX and design professionals define design thinking.  

This study consisted of 71 in-person intercepts in Washington DC, San Francisco, Boston, and North Carolina and 16 remote interviews over the phone and via video conferencing. These 87 participants were UX professionals from a diverse range of countries with varying roles and experience.

Intercepts consisted of two questions:

• What do think of when you hear the phrase “design thinking”?
• How would you define design thinking?

Interviews consisted of 10 questions, excluding demographic-related questions:

• What are the first words that come to mind when I say “design thinking”?
• Can you tell me more about [word they supplied in response to question 1]?
• How would you define design thinking? Why?
• What does it mean to practice design thinking?
• What are the positive or negative effects of design thinking?
• Products and services
• Clients/customers
• Using this scale, what is your experience using design thinking?
• Using this same scale, how successful has design thinking been in your experience?
• What could have been better?
• What is good about design thinking? What is bad about design thinking?

Our second study consisted of a qualitative digital survey that ran for two months and had 1067 professional respondents primarily from UX-related fields. The survey had 14 questions, excluding demographic-related questions. An alternative set of 4 questions was shown to those with little to no experience using design thinking.  

• Which of the following best describes your experience with design thinking?
• Where did you learn design thinking?  
• UX maturity 
• Frequency of crossteam collaboration 
• User-centered approach 
• Research-driven decision making
• How often do you, yourself, practice design thinking?
• In your own words, what does it mean to practice design thinking? 
• When do you use design thinking?
• What methods or exercises are used?
• In what situations is each one used and why?
• Which ones are done individually versus as a group?
• How is each exercise executed?
• Gives your organization a competitive advantage
• Drives innovation
• Fosters collaboration
• Provides structure to the organization
• Increases likelihood of success
• Please describe a situation where design thinking positively influenced your organization and why it was successful. 
• Please describe a situation where design thinking may have negatively influenced your organization and why it was negative. 
• Design thinking negatively affects efficiency.
• Design thinking requires a collaborative environment to work well.
• Anyone can learn and practice design thinking.
• Design thinking is rigid.
• Design thinking requires all involved to be human-centered.
• Design thinking takes a lot of time.
• Design thinking has low return on investment.
• Design thinking empowers personal growth.
• Design thinking grows interpersonal relationships.
• Design thinking improves organizational progress.

The 1067 survey participants had diverse backgrounds: they held varying roles across industries and were located across the globe. 94 responses were invalid, so we excluded them from our analysis.  

The majority of participants (33%) were UX designers, followed by UX researchers (13%) and UX consultants (12%). 

Of participants who responded “Other”, the most common response provided was an executive role (n=20). This included roles such as CEO, VP, director, founder, and “head of.” Other mentioned roles included service designer (n=17), manager (n=14), business designer or business analyst (n=11), and educator (including teacher, instructor, and curriculum designer) (n=11).

Geographically, we had respondents from 67 different countries. The majority of survey participants work in the United States (34%), followed by India (8%), United Kingdom (7%), and Canada (5%). 

Our survey participants also represented diverse industries, with the majority in software (22%) and finance or insurance (14%). 

Of participants who responded Other , the most common response provided was agency or consulting (n=26), followed by telecommunications (n=17), marketing (n=8), and tourism (n=7).

Our third and final study consisted of an in-person case study at a large, public ecommerce company. The case study involved 9 interviews with company employees, 6 observation sessions of design-thinking (or related) workshops, and an internal resource and literature audit. 

The interviews were 1-hour long and semistructured. Of the 8 participants, 3 were on the same team but had different roles: 1 UX designer, 1 product manager, and 1 engineer. The other 5 interviewees (3 design leaders and 2 UX designers) worked in different groups across the organization. Each participant completed the same digital survey from the second study prior to interviewing.    

In addition to interviews, we conducted 6 observation sessions: 3 design-thinking workshops, 2 meetings, and 1 lunch-and-learn. After the workshops, all participants were invited to fill out a survey about the workshop. The survey had 5 questions: 

• We achieved our goal of [x]. 
• The time and resources spent to conduct the workshop were worth it.
• What aspects were of greatest value to you, and why? 
• Where there any aspects you felt were not useful, and why?
• Will the workshop or its output impact any of your future work? If so, how?
• What is your role?

Lastly, we conducted a resource and literature audit of the company’s internal resources related to design thinking available to employees.  

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A Complete Guide to Primary and Secondary Research in UX Design

To succeed in UX design, you must know what UX research methods to use for your projects.

This impacts how you:

• Understand and meet user needs
• Execute strategic and business-driven solutions
• Differentiate yourself from other designers
• Be more efficient in your resources
• Innovate within your market

Primary and secondary research methods are crucial to uncovering this. The former is when you gather firsthand data directly from sources, while the latter synthesizes existing data and translates them into insights and recommendations.

Let's dive deep into each type of research method and its role in UX research.

If you are still hungry to learn more, specifically how to apply it practically in the real world, you should check out Michael Wong's UX research course . He teaches you  the exact process and tactics he used that helped him build a UX agency that generated over $10M+ million in revenue.

What is p rimary research in UX design

Primary UX research gathers data directly from the users to understand their needs, behaviors, and preferences.

It's done through interviews, surveys, and observing users as they interact with a product.

Primary research in UX: When and why to use it

Primary research typically starts at the start of a UX project. This is so that the design process is grounded in a deep understanding of user needs and behaviors.

By collecting firsthand information early on, teams can tailor their designs to address real user problems.

Here are the reasons why primary research is important in UX design:

1. It fast-tracks your industry understanding

Your knowledge about the industry may be limited at the start of the project. Primary research helps you get up to speed because you interact directly with real customers. As a result, this allows you to work more effectively.

Example: Imagine you're designing an app for coffee lovers. But you're not a coffee drinker yourself. Through user interviews, you learn how they prefer to order their favorite drink, what they love or hate about existing coffee apps, and their "wishlist" features by talking directly to them.

This crucial information will guide you on what to focus on in later stages when you do the actual designing.

2. You'll gain clarity and fill knowledge gaps

There are always areas we know less about than we'd like. Primary research helps fill these gaps by observing user preferences and needs directly.

Example: Let's say you're working on a website for online learning. You might assume that users prefer video lessons over written content, but your survey results show that many users prefer written material because they can learn at their own pace.

With that in mind, you'll prioritize creating user-friendly design layouts for written lessons.

3. You get to test and validate any uncertainties

When unsure about a feature, design direction, or user preference, primary research allows you to test these elements with real users.

This validation process helps you confidently move forward since you have data backing your decisions.

Example: You're designing a fitness app and can't decide between a gamified experience (with points and levels) or a more straightforward tracking system.

By prototyping both options and testing them with a group of users, you discover that the gamified experience concept resonates more.

Users are more motivated when they gain points and progress levels. As a result, you pivot to designing a better-gamified experience.

Types of primary research methods in UX design

Here's a detailed look at common primary research methods in UX:

1. User interviews

• What is it: User interviews involve one-on-one conversations with users to gather detailed insights, opinions, and feedback about their experiences with a product or service.
• Best used for: Gathering qualitative insights on user needs, motivations, and pain points.
• Tools: Zoom and Google Meet for remote interviews; Calendly for scheduling; Otter.ai for transcription.
• What is it: Surveys are structured questionnaires designed to collect quantitative data on user preferences, behaviors, and demographics.
• Best used for: Collecting data from many users to identify patterns and trends.
• Tools: Google Forms, SurveyMonkey, and Typeform for survey creation; Google Sheets and Notion for note taking.

3. Usability testing

• What is it: Usability testing involves observing users interact with a prototype or the actual product to identify usability issues and areas for improvement.
• Best used for: Identifying and addressing usability problems.
• Tools: FigJam, Lookback.io , UserTesting, Hotjar for conducting and recording sessions; InVision, Figma for prototype testing; Google Sheets to log usability issues and track task completion rates.

4. Contextual inquiry

• What is it: This method involves observing and interviewing users in their natural environment to understand how they use a product in real-life situations.
• Best used for: Gaining deep insights into user behavior and the context in which a product is used.
• Tools: GoPro or other wearable cameras for in-field recording; Evernote for note-taking; Miro for organizing insights.

5. Card sorting

• What is it: Card sorting is when users organize and categorize content or information.
• Best used for: Designing or evaluating the information architecture of a website or application.
• Tools: FigJam, Optimal Workshop, UXPin, and Trello for digital card sorting; Mural for collaborative sorting sessions.

6. Focus groups

• What is it: Group discussions with users that explore their perceptions, attitudes, and opinions about a product.
• Best used for: Gathering various user opinions and ideas in an interactive setting.
• Tools: Zoom, Microsoft Teams for remote focus groups; Menti or Slido for real-time polling and feedback.

7. Diary studies

• What is it: A method where users record their experiences, thoughts, and frustrations while interacting with a product over a certain period of time.
• Best used for: Understanding long-term user behavior, habits, and needs.
• Tools: Dscout, ExperienceFellow for mobile diary entries; Google Docs for simple text entries.

8. Prototype testing

• What is it: Prototype testing is when users evaluate the usability and design of early product prototypes with users.
• Best used for: Identifying usability issues and gathering feedback on design concepts
• Tools: Figma for creating and sharing prototypes; Maze for unmoderated testing and analytics.

9. Eye-tracking

• What is it: A method that analyzes where and how long users look at different areas on a screen.
• Best used for: Understanding user attention, readability, and visual hierarchy effectiveness.
• Tools: Tobii, iMotions for hardware; Crazy Egg for website heatmaps as a simpler alternative.

10. A/B testing

• What is it: A/B testing compares two or more versions of a webpage or app feature to determine which performs better in achieving specific goals.
• Best used for: Making data-driven decisions on design elements that impact user behavior.
• Tools: Optimizely, Google Optimize for web-based A/B testing; VWO for more in-depth analysis and segmentation.

11. Field studies

• What is it: Research done in real-world settings to observe and analyze user behavior and interactions in their natural environment.
• Best used for: Gaining insights into how products are used in real-world contexts and identifying unmet user needs.
• Tools: Notability, OneNote for note-taking; Voice Memos for audio recording; Trello for organizing observations.

12. Think-aloud protocols

• What is it: A method involves users verbalizing their thought process while interacting with a product. It helps uncover their decision-making process and pain points.
• Best used for: Understanding user reasoning, expectations, and experiences when using the product.
• Tools: UsabilityHub, Morae for recording think-aloud sessions; Zoom for remote testing with screen sharing.

Challenges of primary research in UX

Here are the obstacles that UX professionals may face with primary research:

• Time-consuming : Primary research requires significant planning, conducting, and analyzing. This is particularly relevant for methods that involve a lot of user interaction.
• Resource intensive : A considerable amount of resources is needed, including specialized tools or skills for data collection and analysis.
• Recruitment difficulties : Finding and recruiting suitable participants willing to put in the effort can be challenging and costly.
• Bias and validity : The risk of bias in collecting and interpreting data highlights the importance of carefully designing the research strategy. This is so that the findings are accurate and reliable.

What is secondary research in UX design

Once primary research is conducted, secondary research analyzes and converts this data into insights. They may also find common themes and ideas and convert them into meaningful recommendations.

Using journey maps, personas, and affinity diagrams can help them better understand the problem.

Secondary research also involves reviewing existing research, published books, articles, studies, and online information. This includes competitor websites and online analytics to support design ideas and concepts.

Secondary research in UX: Knowing when and why to use it

Secondary research is a flexible method in the design process. It fits in both before and after primary research.

At the project's start, looking at existing research and what's already known can help shape your design strategy. This groundwork helps you understand the design project in a broader context.

After completing your primary research, secondary research comes into play again. This time, it's about synthesizing your findings and forming insights or recommendations for your stakeholders.

Here's why it's important in your design projects:

1. It gives you a deeper understanding of your existing research

Secondary research gathers your primary research findings to identify common themes and patterns. This allows for a more informed approach and uncovers opportunities in your design process.

Example: When creating personas or proto-personas for a fitness app, you might find common desires for personalized workout plans and motivational features.

This data shapes personas like "Fitness-focused Fiona," a detailed profile that embodies a segment of your audience with her own set of demographics, fitness objectives, challenges, and likes.

2. Learn more about competitors

Secondary research in UX is also about leveraging existing data in the user landscape and competitors.

This may include conducting a competitor or SWOT analysis so that your design decisions are not just based on isolated findings but are guided by a comprehensive overview. This highlights opportunities for differentiation and innovation.

Example: Suppose you're designing a budgeting app for a startup. You can check Crunchbase, an online database of startup information, to learn about your competitors' strengths and weaknesses.

If your competitor analysis reveals that all major budgeting apps lack personalized advice features, this shows an opportunity for yours to stand out by offering customized budgeting tips and financial guidance.

Types of secondary research methods in UX

1. competitive analysis.

• What is it: Competitive analysis involves systematically comparing your product with its competitors in the market. It's a strategic tool that helps identify where your product stands about the competition and what unique value proposition it can offer.
• Best used for: Identifying gaps in the market that your product can fill, understanding user expectations by analyzing what works well in existing products, and pinpointing areas for improvement in your own product.
• Tools: Google Sheets to organize and visualize your findings; Crunchbase and SimilarWeb to look into competitor performance and market positioning; and UserVoice to get insights into what users say about your competitors.

2. Affinity mapping

• What is it: A collaborative sorting technique used to organize large sets of information into groups based on their natural relationships.
• Best used for: Grouping insights from user research, brainstorming sessions, or feedback to identify patterns, themes, and priorities. It helps make sense of qualitative data, such as user interview transcripts, survey responses, or usability test observations.
• Tools: Miro and FigJam for remote affinity mapping sessions.

3. Customer journey mapping

• What is it: The process of creating a visual representation of the customer's experience with a product or service over time and across different touchpoints.
• Best used for: Visualizing the user's path from initial engagement through various interactions to the final goal.
• Tools: FigJam and Google Sheets for collaborative journey mapping efforts.

4. Literature and academic review

• What is it: This involves examining existing scholarly articles, books, and other academic publications relevant to your design project. The goal is to deeply understand your project's theoretical foundations, past research findings, and emerging trends.
• Best used for: Establishing a solid theoretical framework for your design decisions. A literature review can uncover insights into user behavior and design principles that inform your design strategy.
• Tools: Academic databases like Google Scholar, JSTOR, and specific UX/UI research databases. Reference management tools like Zotero and Mendeley can help organize your sources and streamline the review process.

Challenges of secondary research in UX design

These are the challenges that UX professionals might encounter when carrying out secondary research:

• Outdated information : In a world where technology changes fast, the information you use must be current, or it might not be helpful.
• Challenges with pre-existing data : Using data you didn't collect yourself can be tricky because you have less control over its quality. Always review how it was gathered to avoid mistakes.
• Data isn't just yours : Since secondary data is available to everyone, you won't be the only one using it. This means your competitors can access similar findings or insights.
• Trustworthiness : Look into where your information comes from so that it's reliable. Watch out for any bias in the data as well.

The mixed-method approach: How primary and secondary research work together

Primary research lays the groundwork, while secondary research weaves a cohesive story and connects the findings to create a concrete design strategy.

Here's how this mixed-method approach works in a sample UX project for a health tech app:

Phase 1: Groundwork and contextualization

• User interviews and surveys (Primary research) : The team started their project by interviewing patients and healthcare providers. The objective was to uncover the main issues with current health apps and what features could enhance patient care.
• Industry and academic literature review (Secondary research) : The team also reviewed existing literature on digital health interventions, industry reports on health app trends, and case studies on successful health apps.

Phase 2: Analysis and strategy formulation

• Affinity mapping (Secondary research) : Insights from the interviews and surveys were organized using affinity mapping. It revealed key pain points like needing more personalized and interactive care plans.
• Competitive benchmarking (Secondary research) : The team also analyzed competitors’ apps through secondary research to identify common functionalities and gaps. They noticed a lack of personalized patient engagement and, therefore, positioned their app to fill this void in the market.

Phase 3: Design and validation

• Prototyping (Secondary research) : With a good grasp of what users need and the opportunities in the market, the startup created prototypes. These prototypes include AI-powered personalized care plans, reminders for medications, and interactive tools to track health.
• Usability testing (Primary research) : The prototypes were tested with a sample of the target user group, including patients and healthcare providers. Feedback was mostly positive, especially for the personalized care plans. This shows that the app has the potential to help patients get more involved in their health.

Phase 4: Refinement and market alignment

• Improving design through iterations: The team continuously refined the app's design based on feedback from ongoing usability testing.
• Ongoing market review (Secondary research) : The team watched for new studies, healthcare reports, and competitors' actions. This helped them make sure their app stayed ahead in digital health innovation.

Amplify your design impact and impress your stakeholders in 10+ hours

Primary and secondary research methods are part of a much larger puzzle in UX research.

However, understanding the theoretical part is not enough to make it as a UX designer nowadays.

The reason?

UX design is highly practical and constantly evolving. To succeed in the field, UX designers must do more than just design.

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Sometimes, the best knowledge comes from those who have been there themselves. That's why finding the right mentor with experience and who can give practical advice is crucial.

In just 10+ hours, the Practical UX Research & Strategy Course dives deep into strategic problem-solving. By the end, you'll know exactly how to make data-backed solutions your stakeholders will get on board with.

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This course equips you with the skills to:

• Derive actionable insights through objective-driven questions.
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• Transform research and data into actionable frameworks and customer journey maps.
• Communicate findings effectively and prioritize tasks for your team.
• Present metrics and objectives that resonate with stakeholders.

Designed for flexible and independent learning, this course allows you to progress independently.

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Gain expert UX research skills and outshine your competitors.

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The 4 types of research methods in ui/ux design (and when to use them).

• User Experience
• 4 minute read
• by, Rich Staats

Design research is a necessary part of creating a user-centered product. When done right, you’re able to gather data that helps you:

• Identify and solve relevant design problems.
• Better understand the product’s end users.
• Improve your designs based on data-driven research.

Though there are many different ways to collect data and do design research, they can broadly be categorized as either primary, secondary, exploratory, or evaluative research. In this article, we’ll explain these four types of research methods in the context of UI/UX design and when you should use them in your design process.

Primary research

Primary research is the simplest (and perhaps most effective) way to come up with data to get a better understanding of the audience for which you’re designing. The purpose of primary research is to validate design ideas and concepts early on in the design process. The data you collect from primary research allows you to design meaningful, user-centered solutions.

Let’s take a look at some examples of primary research:

Conducting interviews with individuals or in small groups is a great starting point, and there are many ways to go about it. Depending on your project, you might conduct direct interviews or indirect interviews. Direct interviews are simple question-answer format interviews whereas indirect interviews are set up in a more conversational style. You’ll also have to decide whether you’ll interview people in-person or remotely.

Focus groups

Focus groups are structured, group interviews in which a moderator guides the discussion. As a UI/UX designer, you might consider using this research method when you need to gather user insight quickly.

Usability testing

Once you develop a prototype, you can recruit test participants and conduct usability tests  to uncover foundational issues with the product’s user experience and gather user feedback. The idea is to define user goals and turn them into realistic task scenarios  that the test participants would have to complete using your prototype.

Secondary research

Secondary research is when you use existing books, articles, or research material to validate your design ideas and concepts or support your primary research. For example, you might want to use the material you gather from secondary research to:

• Explain the context behind your UI design.
• Build a case for your design decisions.
• Reinforce the data you gathered from primary research.

Generally speaking, secondary research is much easier (and faster) to do than primary research. You’ll be able to find most of the information you need on the internet, in the library, or your company’s archives. Here are some places you can collect secondary research from:

• Your company’s internal data, which may include information contained in your company’s files, databases and project reports.
• Client’s research department, e.g. the data your client has regarding user behavior with previous versions of the website/application, user interests, etc.
• Industry statistics, i.e. the industry’s general consensus, standards and conventions.
• Relevant books, articles, case studies and magazines.

Websites have evolved a great deal over the last two decades, and so has the way users interact with them. This is why one of the most common challenges with secondary research in UI/UX design is outdated data. In such cases, UI/UX designers resort to other research methods (such as primary research or exploratory research) to gather the data they need.

Exploratory research

Exploratory research is usually conducted at the start of the design process with a purpose to help designers understand the problem they’re trying to solve. As such, it focuses on gathering a thorough understanding of the end user’s needs and goals.

In the Define the Problem stage of the design thinking process , you can use exploratory research techniques to develop a design hypothesis and validate it with the product’s intended user base. By doing so, you’ll be in a better position to make hypothesis-driven design decisions throughout the design process.

You can validate your hypothesis by running experiments. Here are some of the ways you can validate your assumptions depending on where you are in the design process:

• Conducting interviews and surveys
• Organizing focus groups
• Conducting usability tests
• Running various A/B tests

Essentially, you’re combining exploratory research and primary research techniques to define the problem accurately. You can do this by asking questions that encourage interview participants to explore different design concepts and think outside the box.

Before you begin collecting data, remember to write down the experiment you’re running and define the outcomes that validate your design hypothesis. After doing exploratory research, you should have enough data to begin designing a solution.

Evaluative research

Exploratory research gives you enough data to begin designing a solution. Once you have a prototype on hand, you can use evaluative research to test that solution with real users. The goal of evaluative research is to help designers gather feedback that allows them to improve  their product’s design.

There are two main functions of evaluative research: summative and formative .

• Summative evaluation is all about making a judgment regarding the efficacy of the product once it’s complete.
• Formative evaluation, on the other hand, focuses on evaluating the product and making improvements (i.e., detecting and eliminating usability problems) during the development process.

For example, you can conduct usability tests in which you ask test participants to use the product to perform a set of tasks. Keep in mind that the purpose of evaluative research is to gather feedback from users regarding your product’s design. In case you’re short on time or low on budget, you can choose to conduct usability studies that fit in your time and budget constraints (such as guerrilla usability testing ).

Deciding which research method to use depends on what data you’re trying to gather and where you are in the design process. The information you collect through your design research will enable you to make informed design decisions and create better user-centered products.

Let’s quickly recap the four types of research methods UI/UX designers can use in the design process:

• Primary research  is used to generate data by conducting interviews, surveys, and usability tests and/or organizing focus group sessions.
• With secondary research,  you’re able to use existing research material to validate your design ideas and support your primary research.
• Exploratory research  is when you come up with a design hypothesis and run experiments to validate it.
• Once you have a prototype, you can use evaluative research  to see if there’s any room for improvement.

Which of these research methods do you use in your design process and how? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Primary and Secondary Research

You may be hearing and reading a lot about the terms “primary and secondary research.” Actually, they are fancy terms to describe very simple concepts. This video does a nice job of explaining the concepts.

So basically…

If you heard it from  someone else , as “second-hand” information, it’s  secondary research .

If  you were the first person  (the primary person) to discover something, then it’s  primary research .

Secondary research is important because it allows you to catch up on what everyone else has already found and researched (hopefully thoroughly). After a literature review or other form of secondary research, you will be prepared to venture into the topic with confidence because you will know the existing knowledge on the topic.

Primary research is special because you are the first (or one of the few) people to study the phenomena. Considering design is always changing and the ways people react to it are seldom the same (depending on culture, time period, context, and many other factors), it’s very likely your research may be exploring uncharted territory.

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Color Theory

What is color theory.

Color theory is the study of how colors work together and how they affect our emotions and perceptions. It's like a toolbox for artists, designers, and creators to help them choose the right colors for their projects. Color theory enables you to pick colors that go well together and convey the right mood or message in your work.

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Color is in the Beholders’ Eyes

“Color! What a deep and mysterious language, the language of dreams.” — Paul Gauguin, Famous post-Impressionist painter

Sir Isaac Newton established color theory when he invented the color wheel in 1666. Newton understood colors as human perceptions —not absolute qualities—of wavelengths of light . By systematically categorizing colors, he defined three groups:

Primary (red, blue, yellow).

Secondary (mixes of primary colors).

Tertiary (or intermediate —mixes of primary and secondary colors).

What Are Hue, Value and Saturation?

© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0

Hue is the attribute of color that distinguishes it as red, blue, green or any other specific color on the color wheel.

Value represents a color's relative lightness or darkness or grayscale and it’s crucial for creating contrast and depth in visual art.

Saturation , also known as chroma or intensity, refers to the purity and vividness of a color, ranging from fully saturated (vibrant) to desaturated (grayed).

In user experience (UX) design , you need a firm grasp of color theory to craft harmonious, meaningful designs for your users.

Use a Color Scheme and Color Temperature for Design Harmony

In screen design, designers use the additive color model , where red, green and blue are the primary colors. Just as you need to place images and other elements in visual design strategically, your color choices should optimize your users’ experience in attractive interfaces with high usability . When starting your design process, you can consider using any of these main color schemes:

Monochromatic : Take one hue and create other elements from different shades and tints of it.

Analogous : Use three colors located beside one another on the color wheel (e.g., orange, yellow-orange and yellow to show sunlight). A variant is to mix white with these to form a “high-key” analogous color scheme (e.g., flames).

Complementary : Use “opposite color” pairs—e.g., blue/yellow—to maximize contrast.

Split-Complementary (or Compound Harmony ): Add colors from either side of your complementary color pair to soften the contrast.

Triadic : Take three equally distant colors on the color wheel (i.e., 120° apart: e.g., red/blue/yellow). These colors may not be vibrant, but the scheme can be as it maintains harmony and high contrast. It’s easier to make visually appealing designs with this scheme than with a complementary scheme.

Tetradic : Take four colors that are two sets of complementary pairs (e.g., orange/yellow/blue/violet) and choose one dominant color. This allows rich, interesting designs. However, watch the balance between warm and cool colors.

Square : A variant of tetradic; you find four colors evenly spaced on the color wheel (i.e., 90° apart). Unlike tetradic, square schemes can work well if you use all four colors evenly.

Your colors must reflect your design’s goal and the brand’s personality . You should also apply color theory to optimize a positive psychological impact on users . So, you should carefully determine how the color temperature (i.e., your use of warm, neutral and cool colors) reflects your message.

For example, you can make a neutral color such as grey warm or cool depending on factors such as your organization’s character and the industry.

Use Color Theory to Match What Your Users Want to See

The right contrast is vital to catching users’ attention in the first place. The vibrancy you choose for your design is likewise crucial to provoking desired emotional responses from users. How they react to color choices depends on factors such as gender, experience, age and culture. In all cases, you should design for accessibility —e.g., regarding red-green color blindness. You can fine-tune color choices through UX research to resonate best with specific users. Your users will encounter your design with their expectations of what a design in a certain industry should look like. That’s why you must also design to meet your market’s expectations geographically . For example, blue, an industry standard for banking in the West, has positive associations in other cultures.

However, some colors can evoke contradictory feelings from certain nationalities (e.g., red: good fortune in China, mourning in South Africa, danger/sexiness in the USA). Overall, you should use usability testing to confirm your color choices.

Learn More about Color Theory

Take our course Visual Design: The Ultimate Guide .

Register for the How To Use Color Theory To Enhance Your Designs Master Class webinar with color experts Arielle Eckstut and Joann Eckstut.

See designer and author Cameron Chapman’s in-depth piece for insights, tips and examples of color theory at work.

For more on concepts associated with color theory and color scheme examples, read Tubik Studio’s guide .

Questions related to Color Theory

As an artist, it's important to have a solid understanding of color theory. This framework allows you to explore how colors interact and can be combined to achieve specific effects or reactions. It involves studying hues, tints, tones, and shades, as well as the color wheel and classifications of primary, secondary, and tertiary colors.

The Color Wheel © Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0

Complementary and analogous colors are also important concepts to understand, as they can be used to create stunning color combinations. Additionally, color theory delves into the psychological effects of color, which can greatly impact the aesthetic and emotional impact of your art. By utilizing color theory, you can make informed decisions about color choices in your work and create art that truly resonates with your audience.

Color theory is a concept used in visual arts and design that explains how colors interact with each other and how they can be combined to create certain feelings, moods, and reactions. Arielle Eckstut, co-author of 'What Is Color? 50 Questions and Answers on the Science of Color,' explains that color does not exist outside of our perception, and different brains process visual information differently. Our retina, a part of the brain, plays a crucial role in color vision, and our brains constantly take in information from the outside world to inform us about our surroundings.

Watch this video for a deeper understanding of the science behind color:

To learn color theory, enroll in the ' Visual Design: The Ultimate Guide ' course on Interaction Design Foundation. This comprehensive course covers all aspects of visual design, including color theory. You will learn how colors interact with each other, how to combine them to create specific feelings and reactions, and how to use them effectively in your designs. 

The course includes video lectures, articles, and interactive exercises that will help you master color theory and other key concepts of visual design. Start your journey to becoming a color theory expert by signing up for the course today !

Color theory helps us make sense of the world around us by providing a shorthand for using products, distinguishing objects, and interpreting information. For instance, colors can help us quickly identify pills in a bottle or different dosages.

Designers also consider cultural, personal, and biological influences on color perception to ensure the design communicates the right information. Ultimately, color helps us navigate the world safely, quickly, and with joy. Find out more about the significance of color in design by watching this video:

To use color theory effectively, consider the following tips from Joann Eckstut, co-author of 'What Is Color? 50 Questions and Answers on the Science of Color, in this video:

Understand the effect of light: Daylight constantly changes, affecting the colors we see. Changing the light source will change the color appearance of objects.

Consider the surroundings: Colors appear to change depending on the colors around them, a phenomenon known as simultaneous contrast.

Be aware of metamerism: Colors that match under one light source may not fit under another.

Remember that various factors such as light source and surrounding colors influence color, which is not a fixed entity. Being aware of these factors will prepare you to work effectively with color. Watch the full video for more insights and examples.

Color theory, as we know it today, is a culmination of ideas developed over centuries by various artists and scientists. However, one key figure in its development is Sir Isaac Newton, who, in 1666, discovered the color spectrum by passing sunlight through a prism. He then arranged these colors in a closed loop, creating the first color wheel. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe later expanded on this with his book "Theory of Colours" in 1810, exploring the psychological effects of colors. 

Modern color theory has since evolved, incorporating principles from both Newton and Goethe, along with contributions from numerous other artists and researchers. To learn more about color theory, consider enrolling in the Visual Design - The Ultimate Guide course.

Understanding color theory might seem daunting at first, but it is manageable. Michal Malewicz emphasizes in the video below, that initially, a UX designer only needs three colors: a background color, a foreground (text) color, and an accent color. 

It's advisable to start with fewer colors and gradually incorporate more as you become comfortable. Also, avoid color combinations like red mixed with saturated blue or green, and always test your colors for contrast and accessibility. Mastering color theory ultimately comes down to practice and observation. If it looks good, then it is good. For a comprehensive learning experience, consider enrolling in the Visual Design - The Ultimate Guide course on Interaction Design Foundation. Enroll now

Literature on Color Theory

Here’s the entire UX literature on Color Theory by the Interaction Design Foundation, collated in one place:

Learn more about Color Theory

Take a deep dive into Color Theory with our course Visual Design: The Ultimate Guide .

In this course, you will gain a holistic understanding of visual design and increase your knowledge of visual principles , color theory , typography , grid systems and history . You’ll also learn why visual design is so important, how history influences the present, and practical applications to improve your own work. These insights will help you to achieve the best possible user experience.

In the first lesson, you’ll learn the difference between visual design elements and visual design principles . You’ll also learn how to effectively use visual design elements and principles by deconstructing several well-known designs. 

In the second lesson, you’ll learn about the science and importance of color . You’ll gain a better understanding of color modes, color schemes and color systems. You’ll also learn how to confidently use color by understanding its cultural symbolism and context of use. 

In the third lesson, you’ll learn best practices for designing with type and how to effectively use type for communication . We’ll provide you with a basic understanding of the anatomy of type, type classifications, type styles and typographic terms. You’ll also learn practical tips for selecting a typeface, when to mix typefaces and how to talk type with fellow designers. 

In the final lesson, you’ll learn about grid systems and their importance in providing structure within design . You’ll also learn about the types of grid systems and how to effectively use grids to improve your work.

You’ll be taught by some of the world’s leading experts . The experts we’ve handpicked for you are the Vignelli Distinguished Professor of Design Emeritus at RIT R. Roger Remington , author of “American Modernism: Graphic Design, 1920 to 1960”; Co-founder of The Book Doctors Arielle Eckstut and leading color consultant Joann Eckstut , co-authors of “What Is Color?” and “The Secret Language of Color”; Award-winning designer and educator Mia Cinelli , TEDx speaker of “The Power of Typography”; Betty Cooke and William O. Steinmetz Design Chair at MICA Ellen Lupton , author of “Thinking with Type”; Chair of the Graphic + Interactive communication department at the Ringling School of Art and Design Kimberly Elam , author of "Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type.”

Throughout the course, we’ll supply you with lots of templates and step-by-step guides so you can go right out and use what you learn in your everyday practice.

In the “ Build Your Portfolio Project: Redesign ,” you’ll find a series of fun exercises that build upon one another and cover the visual design topics discussed. If you want to complete these optional exercises, you will get hands-on experience with the methods you learn and in the process you’ll create a case study for your portfolio which you can show your future employer or freelance customers.

You can also learn with your fellow course-takers and use the discussion forums to get feedback and inspire other people who are learning alongside you. You and your fellow course-takers have a huge knowledge and experience base between you, so we think you should take advantage of it whenever possible.

You earn a verifiable and industry-trusted Course Certificate once you’ve completed the course. You can highlight it on your resume , your LinkedIn profile or your website .

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Cite according to academic standards

Simply copy and paste the text below into your bibliographic reference list, onto your blog, or anywhere else. You can also just hyperlink to this page.

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Another way to categorize information is by whether the information is in its original format or has been reinterpreted.

Another information category is publication mode and has to do with whether the information is

• Firsthand information (information in its original form, not translated or published in another form).
• Secondhand information (a restatement, analysis, or interpretation of original information).
• Third-hand information (a summary or repackaging of original information, often based on secondary information that has been published).

The three labels for information sources in this category are, respectively, primary sources, secondary sources, and tertiary sources.

When you make distinctions between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources, you are relating the information to the context in which it was created. Understanding this relationship is an important skill that you’ll need in college, as well as in the workplace. The relationship between creation and context helps us understand the “big picture” in which information operates and helps us figure out which information we can depend on. That’s a big part of thinking critically, a major benefit of actually becoming an educated person.

Primary Sources – Because it is in its original form, the information in primary sources has reached us from its creators without going through any filter. We get it firsthand. Here are some examples that are often used as primary sources:

• Any literary work, including novels, plays, and poems.
• Breaking news.
• Advertisements.
• Music and dance performances.
• Eyewitness accounts, including photographs and recorded interviews.
• Blog entries that are autobiographical.
• Scholarly blogs that provide data or are highly theoretical, even though they contain no autobiography.
• Artifacts such as tools, clothing, or other objects.
• Original documents such as tax returns, marriage licenses, and transcripts of trials.
• Websites, although many are secondary.
• Correspondence, including email.
• Records of organizations and government agencies.
• Journal articles that report research for the first time (at least the parts about the new research, plus their data).

Secondary Source – These sources are translated, repackaged, restated, analyzed, or interpreted original information that is a primary source. Thus, the information comes to us secondhand, or through at least one filter. Here are some examples that are often used as secondary sources:

• All nonfiction books and magazine articles except autobiography.
• An article or website that critiques a novel, play, painting, or piece of music.
• An article or web site that synthesizes expert opinion and several eyewitness accounts for a new understanding of an event.
• The literature review portion of a journal article.

Tertiary Source – These sources further repackage the original information because they index, condense, or summarize the original.

Typically, by the time tertiary sources are developed, there have been many secondary sources prepared on their subjects, and you can think of tertiary sources as information that comes to us “third-hand.” Tertiary sources are usually publications that you are not intended to read from cover to cover but to dip in and out of for the information you need. You can think of them as a good place for background information to start your research but a bad place to end up. Here are some examples that are often used as tertiary sources:

• Dictionaries.
• Guide books, including the one you are now reading.
• Survey articles.
• Bibliographies.
• Encyclopedias, including Wikipedia.
• Most textbooks.

Tertiary sources are usually not acceptable as cited sources in college research projects because they are so far from firsthand information. That’s why most professors don’t want you to use Wikipedia as a citable source: the information in Wikipedia is far from the original information. Other people have considered it, decided what they think about it, rearranged it, and summarized it–all of which is actually what your professors want you , not another author, to do with the information in your research projects.

The Details Are Tricky — A few things about primary or secondary sources might surprise you:

• Sources become primary rather than always exist as primary sources.

It’s easy to think that it is the format of primary sources that makes them primary. But that’s not all that matters. So when you see lists like the one above of sources that are often used as primary sources, it’s wise to remember that the ones listed are not automatically already   primary sources. Firsthand sources get that designation only when researchers actually find their information relevant and use it.

For instance: Records that could be relevant to those studying government are created every day by federal, state, county, and city governments as they operate. But until those raw data are actually used by a researcher, they cannot be considered primary sources.

Another example: A diary about his flying missions kept by an American helicopter pilot in the Viet Nam War is not a primary source until, say, a researcher uses it in her study of how the war was carried out. But it will never be a primary source for a researcher studying the U.S. public’s reaction to the war because it does not contain information relevant to that study.

• Primary sources, even eyewitness accounts, are not necessarily accurate. Their accuracy has to be evaluated, just like that of all sources.
• Something that is usually considered a secondary source can be considered a primary source, depending on the research project.

For instance, movie reviews are usually considered secondary sources. But if your research project is about the effect movie reviews have on ticket sales, the movie reviews you study would become primary sources.

• Deciding whether to consider a journal article a primary or a secondary source can be complicated for at least two reasons.

First, journal articles that report new research for the first time are usually based on data. So some disciplines consider the data to be the primary source, and the journal article that describes and analyzes them is considered a secondary source.

However, particularly in the sciences, the original researcher might find it difficult or impossible (he or she might not be allowed) to share the data. So sometimes you have nothing more firsthand than the journal article, which argues for calling it the relevant primary source because it’s the closest thing that exists to the data.

Second, even journal articles that announce new research for the first time usually contain more than data. They also typically contain secondary source elements, such as a literature review, bibliography, and sections on data analysis and interpretation. So they can actually be a mix of primary and secondary elements. Even so, in some disciplines, a journal article that announces new research findings for the first time is considered to be, as a whole, a primary source for the researchers using it.

Under What Circumstances?

Consider the sources below and the potential circumstances under which each could become a primary source for you to use in your research.

Despite their trickiness, what primary sources usually offer is too good not to consider using because:

• They are original. This unfiltered, firsthand information is not available anywhere else.
• Their creator was a type of person unlike others in your research project, and you want to include that perspective.
• Their creator was present at an event and shares an eyewitness account.
• They are objects that existed at the particular time your project is studying.

Particularly in humanities courses, your professor may require you to use a certain number of primary sources for your project. In other courses, particularly in the sciences, you may be required to use only primary sources.

What sources are considered primary and secondary sources can vary from discipline to discipline. If you are required to use primary sources for your research project, before getting too deep into your project check with your professor to make sure he or she agrees with your choices. After all, it’s your professor who will be grading your project. A librarian, too, can verify your choices. Just remember to take a copy of your assignment with you when you ask because the librarian will want to see the original assignment. After all, that’s a primary source!

Critical Thinking in Academic Research Copyright © 2022 by Cindy Gruwell and Robin Ewing is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Creation, Intelligent Design, & Evolution

• Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources
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Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources: definitions

When searching for information on a topic, it is important to understand the value of primary, secondary, and tertiary sources.

Primary sources  allow researchers to get as close as possible to original ideas, events, and empirical research as possible. Such sources may include creative works, first hand or contemporary accounts of events, and the publication of the results of empirical observations or research.

Secondary sources  analyze, review, or summarize information in primary resources or other secondary resources. Even sources presenting facts or descriptions about events are secondary unless they are based on direct participation or observation. Moreover, secondary sources often rely on other secondary sources and standard disciplinary methods to reach results, and they provide the principle sources of analysis about primary sources.

Tertiary sources  provide overviews of topics by synthesizing information gathered from other resources. Tertiary resources often provide data in a convenient form or provide information with context by which to interpret it.

The distinctions between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources can be ambiguous. An individual document may be a primary source in one context and a secondary source in another. Encyclopedias are typically considered tertiary sources, but a study of how encyclopedias have changed on the Internet would use them as primary sources. Time is a defining element. While these definitions are clear, the lines begin to blur in the different discipline areas.

Hard Sciences

In the sciences, primary sources are documents that provide full description of the original research. For example, a primary source would be a journal article where scientists describe their research on the genetics of tobacco plants. A secondary source would be an article commenting or analyzing the scientists' research on tobacco.

Primary sources

• Conference proceedings
• Lab notebooks
• Technical reports
• Theses and dissertations

These are where the results of original research are usually first published in the sciences. This makes them the best source of information on cutting edge topics. However the new ideas presented may not be fully refined or validated yet.

Secondary sources

These tend to summarize the existing state of knowledge in a field at the time of publication. Secondary sources are good to find comparisons of different ideas and theories and to see how they may have changed over time.

Tertiary sources

• Compilations
• Dictionaries
• Encyclopedias

These types of sources present condensed material, generally with references back to the primary and/or secondary literature. They can be a good place to look up data or to get an overview of a subject, but they rarely contain original material.

Source for content provided by Virginia Tech Libraries, under    Creative Commons  Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike  4.0 International License . 

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Primary, Secondary & Tertiary Sources

What they are and how they compare (with examples)

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) | Expert Reviewed By: Kerryn Warren (PhD) | January 2023

If you’re new to the wild world of research, you’re bound to encounter the terrible twins, “ primary source ” and “ secondary source ” sooner or later. With any luck, “ tertiary sources ” will get thrown into the mix too! In this post, we’ll unpack both what this terminology means and how to apply it to your research project.

Overview: Source Types

• Primary sources
• Examples of primary sources
• Pros and cons of primary data
• Secondary sources
• Examples of secondary sources
• Pros and cons of secondary data
• Tertiary sources
• Summary & recap

What are primary sources?

Simply put, primary sources (also referred to as primary data) are the original raw materials, evidence or data collected in a study. Primary sources can include interview transcripts, quantitative survey data, as well as other media that provide firsthand accounts of events or phenomena. Primary sources are often considered to be the purest sources because they provide direct, unfiltered data which has not been processed or interpreted in any way.

In addition to the above, examples of primary sources can include

• Results from a social media poll
• Letters written by a historical figure
• Photographs taken during a specific time period
• Government documents such as birth certificates and census records
• Artefacts like clothing and tools from past cultures

Naturally, working with primary data has both benefits and drawbacks. Some of the main advantages include

• Purity : primary sources provide firsthand accounts of events, ideas, and experiences, which means you get access to the rawest, purest form of data.
• Perspective : primary sources allow you to gain a deeper understanding of the perspectives of the people who created them, providing insights into how different groups of people viewed an event or phenomenon.
• Richness : primary data often provide a wealth of detail and nuance that can be missed in secondary data (we’ll cover that shortly). This can provide you with a more complete and nuanced understanding of their topic.

On the flip side, some of the main disadvantages include

• Bias : given their “rawness”, primary sources can often contain biases that can skew or limit your understanding of the issue at hand.
• Inaccessibility : sometimes, collecting fresh primary data can be difficult or even impossible. For example, photographs held in private collections or letters written in a language that you’re not fluent in.
• Fragility : physical artefacts such as manuscripts may be fragile and require special handling, which can make them difficult for you to access or study.
• Limited scope : primary sources often only provide a glimpse of a particular event, person, or period of time, so you may need to rely on multiple primary sources to gain a more complete understanding of a topic.

As you can see, the strengths and weaknesses of primary sources are oftentimes two sides of the same coin . For example, primary data allow you to gain insight into peoples’ unique perspectives, but at the same time, it bakes in a significant level of each participant’s personal bias. So, it’s important to carefully consider what your research aim is and whether it lends itself to this type of data source.

Now that you’ve got a clearer picture of what primary sources/data are, let’s take a look at secondary sources.

What are secondary sources?

Secondary sources are materials that provide an analysis or interpretation of primary sources (primary data). For example, secondary sources of information can include books, journal articles and documentaries . Unlike primary sources (which are raw and uninterpreted), secondary sources provide a distilled, interpreted view of the data.

Other examples of secondary sources include

• A book that provides an analysis of an event
• A biography of a pop icon
• An article that provides an interpretation of a public opinion poll
• A blog post that reviews and compares the performance of competing products

As with primary sources, secondary sources have their own set of pros and cons. Some of the main advantages include:

• Convenience: secondary sources are often easier to access and use than primary sources, as they are widely available in libraries, journal databases, etc.
• Interpretation and synthesis : secondary sources provide a synthesis of the topic of interest, which can help you to quickly understand the most important takeaways from a data set.
• Time-saving : secondary sources can save you time, as you don’t need to analyse primary sources yourself – you can just read summaries or interpretations provided by experts in the field.

At the same time, it’s important to be aware of the disadvantages of secondary sources. Some of the main ones to consider are

• Distance from original sources : secondary sources are based on primary data, but the information has been filtered through the lens of the author, which will naturally carry some level of bias and perhaps even a hidden agenda.
• Limited context: secondary sources may not provide the same level of contextual information or detail as primary sources, which can limit your understanding of the situation and contribute toward a warped understanding.
• Inaccuracies : since secondary sources are the product of human efforts, they may contain inaccuracies or errors, especially if the author has misinterpreted primary data.
• Outdated information : secondary sources may be based on primary sources that are no longer valid or accurate, or they may not take into account more recent research or discoveries.

It’s important to mention that primary and secondary data are not mutually exclusive . In other words, it doesn’t always need to be one or the other. Secondary sources can be used to supplement primary data by providing additional information or context for a particular topic.

For example, if you were researching Martin Luther King Jr., your primary source could be transcripts of the speeches he gave during the civil rights movement. To supplement this information, you could then use secondary sources such as biographies written about him or newspaper articles from the time period in which he was active.

So, once again, it’s important to think about what you’re trying to achieve with your research – that is to say, what are your research aims? As with all methodological choices, your decision to make use of primary or secondary data (or both), needs to be informed by your overall research aims .

Before we wrap up though, it’s important to look at one more source type – tertiary sources.

Need a helping hand?

What are tertiary sources?

Last but not least, we’ve got tertiary sources . Simply put, tertiary sources are materials that provide a general overview of a topic . They often summarise or synthesise information from a combination of primary and secondary sources, such as books, articles, and other documents.

Some examples of tertiary sources include

• Encyclopedias
• Study guides
• Dictionaries

Tertiary sources can be useful when you’re just starting to learn about a completely new topic , as they provide an overview of the subject matter without getting too in-depth into specific details. For example, if you’re researching the history of World War II, but don’t know much about it yet, reading an encyclopedia article (or Wikipedia article) on the war would be helpful in providing you with some basic facts and background information.

Tertiary sources are also useful in terms of providing a starting point for citations to primary and secondary source material which can help guide your search for more detailed, credible information on a particular topic. Additionally, these types of resources may also contain lists of related topics or keywords which you can use to find more information regarding your topic of interest.

Importantly, while tertiary sources are a valuable starting point for your research, they’re not ideal sources to cite in your dissertation, thesis or research project. Instead, you should aim to cite high-quality, credible secondary sources such as peer-reviewed journal articles and research papers . So, remember to only use tertiary sources as a starting point. Don’t make the classic mistake of citing Wikipedia as your main source!

Let’s recap

In this post, we’ve explored the trinity of sources: primary, secondary and tertiary.

• Primary sources include the original raw evidence or data that you collect yourself in a study. For example, interview transcripts or statistical data.
• Secondary sources include distilled analyses and interpretations of primary data that someone else collected in their study. For example, journal articles and critical analysis pieces.
• Tertiary sources include materials that provide a general overview of a topic. For example, encyclopedias, study guides and handbooks.
• Each source type has its own set of strengths and weaknesses , and can play a different role within a research project.
• Primary sources and secondary sources are not necessarily mutually exclusive – they can work together to provide a comprehensive view.
• It’s important to ensure that your choice of source (or sources) is guided by and aligned with your research aims .

If you’d like to learn more about primary and secondary research, be sure to check out the rest of the Grad Coach blog here . Alternatively, if you’re looking for hands-on help with your project, take a look at our 1-on-1 private coaching service .

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This post is part of our dissertation mini-course, which covers everything you need to get started with your dissertation, thesis or research project. 

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Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources

Search catalog, what are the differences.

Sources of information or evidence are often categorized as primary, secondary, or tertiary material. These classifications are based on the originality of the material and the proximity of the source or origin. This informs the reader as to whether the author is reporting information that is first hand or is conveying the experiences and opinions of others which is considered second hand. Determining if a source is primary, secondary or tertiary can be tricky. Below you will find a description of the three categories of information and examples to help you make a determination.

Primary Sources

These sources are records of events or evidence as they are first described or actually happened without any interpretation or commentary. It is information that is shown for the first time or original materials on which other research is based.  Primary sources display original thinking, report on new discoveries, or share fresh information.

Secondary Sources

These sources offer an analysis or restatement of primary sources. They often try to describe or explain primary sources. They tend to be works which summarize, interpret, reorganize, or otherwise provide an added value to a primary source.

Tertiary Sources

These are sources that index, abstract, organize, compile, or digest other sources. Some reference materials and textbooks are considered tertiary sources when their chief purpose is to list, summarize or simply repackage ideas or other information. Tertiary sources are usually not credited to a particular author.

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Source Types & Ethical Use

45 Categorizing Types of Sources: Primary, Secondary, Tertiary

Melanie Gagich & Emilie Zickel

An important part of composition is understanding which sources to employ. Generally, sources can be classified as scholarly or popular.

The following video provides a good overview of scholarly and popular sources:

The determination of a text as “popular” or “scholarly/academic” is one way to classify and to understand what type of information you are engaging with.  Another way to classify sources is by considering whether they are primary , secondary , or tertiary . Popular sources can be primary, secondary, or tertiary. Scholarly sources, also, can be primary, secondary, or tertiary.

What is a Primary Source?

Primary sources are texts that arise directly from a particular event or time period. They may be letters, speeches, works of art, works of literature, diaries, direct personal observations, newspaper articles that offer direct observations of current events, survey responses, tweets, other social media posts, original scholarly research, or any other content that comes out of direct involvement with an event or a research study.

Primary research is information that has not yet been critiqued, interpreted or analyzed by a second party.

Primary sources can be popular—published in newspapers, magazines or websites for the general public; or they can be academic—written by scholars and published in scholarly journals.

The following are types of primary sources:

• journals, diaries
• data from surveys or polls
• scholarly journal articles in which the author(s) discuss the methods and results from their own original research/experiments
• photos, videos, sound recordings
• interviews or transcripts
• poems, paintings, sculptures, songs, or other works of art
• government documents, such as reports of legislative sessions, laws or court decisions, and financial or economic reports
• newspaper and magazine articles that report directly on current events (although these can also be considered Secondary)
• investigative journalism (sometimes considered Secondary as well)

What is a Secondary Source?

Secondary sources summarize, interpret, critique, analyze, or offer commentary on primary sources.

The author of a secondary source may be summarizing, interpreting, or analyzing data or information from someone else’s research, or offering an interpretation or opinion on current events, rather than reporting on something they’ve directly experienced. Thus, the secondary source is one step away from that original, primary topic/subject/research study.

Secondary sources can be popular—published in newspapers, magazines or websites for the general public; or they can be academic—written by scholars and published in scholarly journals.

The following are types of secondary sources:

• reviews of books, movies, or art
• summaries of the findings from other people’s research
• interpretations or analyses of primary source materials or other people’s research
• histories or biographies
• political commentary
• newspaper and magazine articles that mainly synthesize others’ research or primary materials (Remember, newspaper and magazine articles can also be considered primary, depending on the content.)

What is a Tertiary Source?

Tertiary sources are syntheses of primary and secondary sources. The person/people who compose a tertiary text are summarizing, compiling, and/or paraphrasing others’ work. These sources sometimes do not even list an author. Often you would want to use a tertiary source to find both Primary and Secondary sources. Keep in mind that it may sometimes be difficult to categorize something as strictly tertiary, and that it may depend on how you decide to use the item in your research and writing. Your instructors will often not accept the sole use of tertiary sources for your papers. Instead, you should strive to only use tertiary sources to find more academic sources, as they often have titles of other works, as well as links if they are web-based, to more academic primary and secondary sources that you can use instead.

Tertiary sources can be popular or academic depending on the content and publisher.

The following are common types of tertiary sources:

• encyclopedias
• dictionaries

The following video contains a recap of the previous information shared about primary, secondary, and tertiary sources:

Thinking about Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources and your Research Strategy

Now that you know what kinds of sources exist, it is important to remember that various disciplines find certain types of evidence to be more acceptable and appropriate than others. For instance, while the Humanities may consider anything from passages of text to art appropriate evidence, certain sciences may prefer data and statistics. What is most important to remember, no matter the discipline for which you are writing and pulling evidence, is that the evidence is never enough by itself. You must always be sure to explain why and how that evidence supports your claims or ideas.

The following is a list of questions you should consider before conducting research:

• What kinds of primary sources would be useful for your research project? Why? Where will you find them? Are you more interested in popular primary sources or scholarly primary sources? Why?
• What kinds of secondary sources could be useful for your project? Why? Are you more interested in popular secondary sources or scholarly secondary sources? Why?
• What kinds of tertiary sources might you try to access? In what ways would this tertiary source help you in your research?

texts that arise directly from a particular event or time period; any content that comes out of direct involvement with an event or a research study

sources that summarize, interpret, critique, analyze, or offer commentary on primary sources; in a secondary source, an author’s subject is not necessarily something that he/she/they directly experienced

sources that identify and locate primary and secondary sources

The Ask: A More Beautiful Question Copyright © 2021 by Melanie Gagich & Emilie Zickel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Industrial Design education in Australia: a competence analysis across primary, secondary and tertiary education levels

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• Published: 21 March 2023
• Volume 34 , pages 427–460, ( 2024 )

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• Kathryn Deighton 1 ,
• Blair Kuys   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9857-0439 2 &
• Shivani Tyagi 2  

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Industrial Design education is poorly understood by laypeople but is present in Australian curricula from primary through to tertiary education levels. Designers and design researchers have long recognised the value of the broad-ranging skills, knowledge fields, and personal qualities design education imparts, but this understanding is generally not shared by the wider community who may see design as surface decoration. This research identifies indicators of value and relevance taken from the twenty-first century competences literature, then measures their presence in four different Industrial Design education settings. Two studies were undertaken. First, Industrial Design educators from primary, secondary, and tertiary levels were surveyed. Then diverse Industrial Design education stakeholders from education and non-education settings were interviewed. The studies gathered both quantitative and qualitative data on the value and relevance of current Industrial Design education in Australia. The result is a comprehensive analysis of the twenty-first century competences present in Australian Industrial Design education, which concludes with recommendations for ways Industrial Design education can benefit twenty-first century learners, as well as ways it should evolve to remain relevant.

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Introduction

Industrial Design education is poorly understood by policy makers and the general public (Australian Government, 2018 ; Driver et al., 2011 ; Goatman & Moodie, 2014 ) but exists in Australian curricula from primary through to tertiary education levels.

Designers and design researchers see Industrial Design as an intellectual undertaking that is complex, future focussed (Jonas, 1999 ; WDO, 2018 ); and inseparable from ethical (Nelson & Stolterman, 2012 ), environmental (Papanek, 1985 ), and cultural contexts. They see that it has a broad knowledge base (Buchanan, 1990 ; Papanek, 1985 ), and a powerful capacity for creative problem solving (Archer, 1964 /1984; Buchanan, 1990 ; WDO, 2018 ). Whereas members of the public and policy makers may see it as surface decoration (Driver et al., 2011 ; Norman, 2017 ). This research seeks to understand the true value of Industrial Design education.

Wright et al. ( 2013 ) identify a paucity of research measuring the value of design and communicating this value to policy makers. While the extensive twenty-first century competences literature describes skills, knowledge, and personal qualities that will be most valuable in upcoming decades (Anderson, et al., 2017 ; Hajkowicz et al., 2016 ; ISA, 2017 ; Leadbeater, 2016 ; OECD, 2019 ; Voogt & Roblin, 2012 ; WEF, 2018 ). This research used the skills, knowledge, and personal qualities from the established twenty-first century competences literature to measure the value and relevance of current Industrial Design education in Australia. The aim was to develop a resource for policy makers and researchers which could influence important decisions about Industrial Design education and public projects over coming decades. This research aimed to enable decision makers in the community to better understand what Industrial Design education has to offer. It also aimed to enable current Industrial Design stakeholders to understand ways Industrial Design education could be improved.

The research measured the presence of key twenty-first century competences in current Australian Industrial Design education settings using both a rating survey and semi-structured interviews. The rating survey was completed by 46 Industrial Design educators from primary, secondary, vocational, and undergraduate university education levels. Then semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 Industrial Design education stakeholders. Four specific education levels were studied for two reasons. Firstly, Industrial Design education has not been examined across such broad education levels before; even though foundational impacts on later education outcomes are well known in other fields (DET, 2016 ; Education Council, 2019 ). Secondly, the developmental and structural contrasts between these four education levels would likely foster different types of value and relevance. Therefore, research results were likely to suggest structural adjustments that could improve Industrial Design education across many levels.

The scope of the research was limited to Australian data sources. However, the findings are relevant to other regions, particularly those with a similar design culture and economic climate to Australia. Nevertheless, we acknowledge that relevance to some regions may be unknown and unknowable (Sen & Sharma, 2011 ).

This research finds that Industrial Design education is likely to impart strong capabilities in a range of key twenty-first century competences. It finds that Industrial Design education may be improved through more overt teaching of collaboration skills, the nurturing of further entrepreneurial skills, and further inclusion of emerging technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), and generative design software. This research finds that Industrial Design education can be used to deliver vital twenty-first century competences from primary school level through to university level, and that its value be recognised through grants and public funding.

Literature review

This literature review first defines the terms competence and personal qualities , as used in this research. The purpose of Industrial Design education is then examined using selected historical and current sources. Next, significant projections about mid-late twenty-first century life are summarised and used to predict activities that Industrial Designers may be involved in over coming decades. Finally, the most in-demand twenty-first century competences and the top Industrial Design competences are identified and compared.

The terms “Competence” and “Personal Qualities”

The established twenty-first century competences literature is used in this research to benchmark the value and the twenty-first century relevance of current Industrial Design education in Australia. Voogt and Roblin ( 2012 ), use the term twenty-first century competences to refer to twenty-first century-relevant skills, knowledge, and attitudes applicable to many fields, on the basis that it is used in many academic papers and government reports (Voogt & Roblin, 2012 ). The term has also been adopted by the European Parliament (European Union, 2018 ). The term twenty-first century competences is therefore adopted for this research, except that in this research it refers to skills, knowledge, and personal qualities . The term personal qualities is used in this research to refer to “non-cognitive” characteristics such as, commitment, motivation, confidence, curiosity, perseverance, self-awareness, resilience, self-esteem, adaptability, and empathy, in line with Duckworth and Yeager ( 2015 ).

The purpose of industrial design education

As with all fields of education, Industrial Design education should support the development and wellbeing of the whole person for work and for life (Education Council, 2019 ; OECD, 2018 ), for the benefit of individuals ( Basic Education Act (Fin); Education Council, 2019 ; Plutarch, 1st Century AD-a; United Nations, 1948 ), and for the enrichment of their local and global communities (Education Council, 2019 ; World Bank, 2018 ). Industrial Design education should produce capable, passionate, lifelong learners (Durrant-Whyte, 2015 ; Education Council, 2019 ; Hajkowicz et al., 2016 ; World Bank, 2018 ) who can think and act for themselves (Duckworth, 1964 ; Plutarch, 1st Century AD-b). Industrial Design education has expanded from the art, science, and technology of the Bauhaus (Bauhaus, 2021 ; Findeli, 2001 ) into a discipline that must also manage “complex and innovative processes involving science, technology, society, business models, marketing, and political issues” (Collina et al., 2017 , p. S1002).

Impacts of upcoming global conditions on the industrial design profession

Global conditions in the next decades will influence which Industrial Design competences are the most valuable and relevant. Projected conditions include the likelihood of extreme technological development (Frey & Osborne, 2017 ; Hajkowicz et al., 2016 ; Kurzweil, 2001 ; WEF, 2017 ), pressing environmental sustainability concerns (EEA, 2015 ; Meadows et al., 1972 ; Turner, 2008 ; WWF, 2016 ), and evolving, complex interactions between social, political, environmental, economic, and technological factors (Davidson, 2005 ; Daly, 2012 ; Meadows et al., 1972 ; Steward Redqueen, 2016 ; Turner, 2008 ; WWF, 2016 ).

As a result of global conditions of upcoming decades, future Industrial Designers will need to be lifelong learners (Hajkowicz et al., 2016 ; Scott, 2015 ; WEF, 2016a ; World Bank, 2018 ) who must keep abreast of changing conditions, especially in relation to emerging technologies, including green technologies. Future Industrial Designers will need to be mindful of resource and energy use when designing for the rising global middle classes (WEF, 2016a ; WEF 2018 ). They will need to do more with less, and even try to design commercial goods that have an overall regenerative effect on the biosphere (Ellen Macarthur Foundation, 2021 ). It is likely future Industrial Designers will help develop innovative ways to feed the world’s growing population (EUFIC, 2018 ) through involvement in the design of 3D printed foodstuffs, more efficient packaging, influence over food trends, and more efficient production and transport systems (EUFIC, 2018 ; Hunter et al., 2017 ). Furthermore, they will need to be systems thinkers (Willis, 2012 ), and apply designerly ways of thinking (Cross, 1982 ) to the management of rising complexity and uncertainty (Rittel & Webber, 1973 /1984; Schön, 1983 ; Simon, 1973 /1984).

Appraisal of twenty-first century employment forecasts suggests that Industrial Designers of coming decades will need to work in more flexible ways and will need to compete globally in their work (Hajkowicz et al., 2016 ). Industrial Designers of coming decades will have to consider the needs of ageing users (UN, 2019 ), and will work with ageing colleagues (Hajkowicz et al., 2016 ). They will need to be educated about Industry 4.0, and emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things, machine learning, digital trade, augmented and virtual reality, advanced manufacturing, new materials, wearable electronics, 3D printing, autonomous transport, robotics, and biotechnology (CEDA, 2015 ; WEF, 2018 ). This knowledge will need to be applied to the design of both physical and virtual products. Industrial Designers of coming decades will also need to have a sound understanding of the privacy, security, intellectual property, and health and safety implications of all design outcomes (Atzori et al., 2014 ). These knowledge requirements suggest that Industrial Designers of coming decades will need increased levels of scientific understanding. They will also need to be resourceful in the face of geopolitical disturbances such as the COVID-19 pandemic, because of the low resilience of design professions to adverse conditions (ABS, 2018 ; NSC, 2020 ). However, more manufacturing may move back to Australia post-pandemic (Australian Government, 2020 ) and this may have a positive effect on Industrial Design work prospects. Industrial Designers of coming decades are also likely to need to reskill often as their jobs evolve (WEF, 2020 ) or they may need to move their skillsets to related or even unrelated disciplines (WEF, 2020 ).

To better understand what is required, we provide a comparison between the top competences from the twenty-first century competences literature mapped alongside the top competences from the Industrial Design competences literature as summarised in Table 1 . Table 1 was generated through analysis of the literature on twenty-first century competences and the literature on competences required in Industrial Design learning. These bodies of literature were identified by selecting relevant articles obtained from the search terms of “twenty-first century education”, “twenty-first century competences”, “twenty-first century skills”, “industrial design competences”, “industrial design education”, and similar. Grey literature, including government reports and reports from international organisations on these same topics was also reviewed.

The references used to generate Table 1 can be viewed in Appendix 1 and Appendix 2. Competences at the top of the table were endorsed by a large proportion of authors, and competences close to the bottom of the tables were endorsed by a smaller yet still substantial proportion of authors.

Comparison of the twenty-first century competences and Industrial Design competences reveals that many of the same competences are valued by twenty-first century competences authors and Industrial Design competences authors. There are four exceptions to this generalisation. These are that empathy , technological knowledge , environmental sustainability knowledge , ethical understanding , organisation skills/project management, and research skills , are endorsed more by the Industrial Design competences authors. This suggests a higher than required tendency towards technology, efficiency, environmentalism, investigation, and social conscience in Industrial Design learning. Adaptability & flexibility is endorsed less by the Industrial Design competences authors despite its prevalence in conventional design approaches. Leadership is endorsed far more by the twenty-first century competences authors than the Industrial Design competences authors, suggesting that Industrial Designers are not necessarily expected to be leaders. Finally, surprisingly, global outlook is mentioned by a higher percentage of twenty-first century authors than Industrial Design competences authors, despite much reliance on offshore manufacturing by many Industrial Designers globally. Two final observations from the literature are firstly, that the top Industrial Design competences are moderately more likely to be hard skills or hard knowledge fields. Hard skills are codifiable and measurable skills that can be taught explicitly (Oxford Reference, 2021 ) such as language learning, arithmetic and machine operation. This suggests that technical, scientific, and practical competences are important aspects of Industrial Design.

Secondly, the Industrial Design competences authors place a somewhat higher emphasis on entrepreneurial capability than the twenty-first century competences authors. This may result from Industrial Design being so closely affiliated with the manufacturing of saleable goods. This comparative analysis of the twenty-first century competences literature and the Industrial Design competences literature will be compared with the final results of this research.

In summary, the literature indicated that the top twenty-first century competences are a broad and variable range of skills, knowledge, and personal qualities, and that there is a substantial crossover between these competences and those valued within the Industrial Design competences literature. Industrial Designers of coming decades will need to adapt to extreme technological changes, pressing environmental concerns, and complex, evolving systems involving social, political, environmental, economic, and technological factors. Industrial Designers of coming decades are likely to need to tackle problems related to food security, the ageing population, increasing global populations, privacy, security, health, and safety. There are likely to be both positive and negative impacts on Industrial Designers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and other potential geopolitical disturbances. Gaps identified in the literature were that: no studies followed the progression of Industrial Design education from school level through to tertiary level; and no studies had quantified the value of Industrial Design education in holistic ways. This research therefore aimed to analyse different levels of Industrial Design education and to quantify the value of Industrial Design education in ways that did not rely on economic measures. The research questions addressed in this research were, What is the value and twenty-first century relevance of current Industrial Design education practice across primary, secondary, vocational, and undergraduate university education levels in Australia? and, How can these Industrial Design education levels improve their twenty-first century value and relevance?

Two research methods were used to investigate the research questions. Firstly, a cross-sectional rating survey was completed by educators. The rating survey was designed to quantitatively measure the value and twenty-first century relevance of students’ Industrial Design projects. Secondly, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a broad range of Industrial Design stakeholders. The interviews were designed to collect data that could be easily compared with the survey data and to provide qualitative insights into the value and relevance of Industrial Design education in Australia. These methods are further described shortly.

Compliance with ethical standards

The survey and interviews were conducted in line with the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research, and were approved in August, 2019 (SHR Project 20,211,215-6629). A separate ethics application was also approved by the Victorian Government Department of Education and Training (DET Project 2019_004141). We acknowledge the support provided by the Victorian Government Department of Education and Training. All participants’ data in the survey and interviews were anonymised or were anonymous from the beginning, since no signifiers were used. The participants agreed to undertake the study based on the informed consent statement at the commencement of the survey and interview. As such, they gave consent for the data to be used for this research.

Participants across both studies

Participants in the two studies were Australian Industrial Design education stakeholders and one Indonesian international student studying Industrial Design in Australia.

Survey study participants

Forty-six survey responses were gathered from 19 university lecturers, six vocational education educators, 15 secondary school teachers, and six primary school teachers. They were all teaching project-based Industrial Design projects (or 3D design projects at primary level) in their classes. Focusing on educators in the survey study allowed a comparison of the actual class contents across these four education levels.

Specific education levels were targeted in order to understand variations arising from developmental differences, from structural aspects of the education settings, and from the differing purposes of the education levels. At primary school level, grade 5 and/or 6 was selected as a group that could understand the purpose of design and design processes in some depth, may lack abstract thinking skills (Piaget, 2016 ), and would have comparatively low assessment pressures. At secondary school level, year 11 and/or 12 was selected as a group that was able to specialise in design, possessed abstract thinking skills (Piaget, 2016 ) and adult-level psychomotor skills (Cratty & Noble, 2016 ), and was affected by high-pressure assessment systems. At the vocational education level, 1st or 2nd year level was targeted as a group where a high degree of specialisation applied, workplace and hands-on skills were emphasised (Norton et al., 2018 ), strong government regulation affected assessment structures (Parliament of Australia, 2018 ), and students were of an age likely to be interested in questions of responsibility and challenging the status quo (Kohlberg, 2010 ; Loevinger, 1973 ). While at university level, 3rd and/or 4th year was targeted as a group where a very high degree of specialisation was possible, and where students were likely to have comparatively higher theoretical and academic aptitudes (Norton et al., 2018 ). This university level was also seen as a level where students would be affected by the autonomy brought about by self-regulation of university courses (Norton et al., 2018 ), and where students would have an even higher interest in questions of responsibility and challenging the status quo than the vocational education students due to their slightly higher age range (Kohlberg, 2010 ; Loevinger, 1973 ).

Survey materials

The research instrument used for the survey was a rubric-style rating tool hosted on the Qualtrics online survey platform. The survey was structured as a series of five-point rating scales measuring the presence of the top twenty-first century competences. Basic demographic information was collected, and two text entry questions asked for the “project title [of the student project educators chose to respond to the survey about]”, and “any further comments”.

In the survey, ten of the thirteen top twenty-first century competences from the literature were rated by educators according to their level of presence in their students’ class projects. These ten twenty-first century competences were: creativity, problem solving, collaboration, innovation, digital skills/connectivity, entrepreneurial capability, critical thinking, adaptability/flexibility, STEM or STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, [Art], Mathematics), and cultural literacy. The top twenty-first century competences of communication skills and interpersonal skills were excluded from the survey because retrospective rating of these two competences would have been too unreliable. Finally, the competence of environmental sustainability knowledge was added to the rating list because it had been so prevalent in the literature on twenty-first century life (EEA, 2015 ; Meadows et al., 1972 ; Turner, 2008 ; WWF, 2016 ). Consequently, the final list of 11 competences rated in the survey were:

problem solving

collaboration

digital skills/connectivity

entrepreneurial capability

critical thinking

adaptability/flexibility

STEM or STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, [Art], Mathematics)

cultural literacy

environmental sustainability knowledge

Competences were sometimes rated individually but were often split into between two and five sub-competences that were easier for respondents to identify. For example, the competence of collaboration was divided into the sub-competences of idea &/or resource sharing in a student group or student partnership , role/responsibility taking in a student group or student partnership, and co-design &/or co-decision making amongst students . Table 2 . shows an example rating question from the survey. It shows the question used to rate one of the three collaboration sub-competences, idea &/or resource sharing in a student group or student partnership .

Survey procedure

The survey procedure was as follows. The authors used publicly available contact information to get in touch with school principals and tertiary education leaders, then asked them to forward survey links to relevant educators in their institutions. After surveys were completed, data were downloaded from the Qualtrics platform to a password protected laptop. The data were next graphically represented and then analysed by comparing the patterns of high ratings, moderate ratings, and low ratings across the different competences and across the different education levels. The surveys were completed between November 2019 and March 2020 before the first pandemic lockdowns affected education delivery in Australia. Survey results will be reported shortly.

Interview study participants

Twenty-three Industrial Design education stakeholders were interviewed. Because the survey was limited to educator viewpoints, the interviews were designed to complement the survey data by capturing the viewpoints of a broad range of Industrial Design education stakeholders. The stakeholders included educators, students, education leaders, curriculum and assessment professionals, design teacher association representatives, professional Industrial Designers, and a makerspace librarian. Where interviewees were associated with education institutions, the education levels they came from were identical to those used in the survey study, namely grade 5 and/or 6, year 11 and/or 12, 1st or 2nd year vocational education, or 3rd or 4th year undergraduate university. This was done to facilitate comparison between the two studies.

Sampling strategy

A combination of cluster sampling and judgemental sampling was used to recruit interviewees. Judgemental sampling was used to identify a diverse set of Industrial Design education stakeholders likely to provide rich information or interesting viewpoints. The non-random technique of judgemental sampling was justified by the fact that the intention of the interview study was to collect a snapshot of diverse views from a particular set of Industrial Design education stakeholders at a particular point in time. Clusters of participants were recruited from schools and tertiary institutions, both for the sake of efficiency, and as a way of comparing different viewpoints about the same system.

Interview questions

A set of two leading questions was used in the semi-structured interviews. These were designed to elicit authentic opinions that could answer the research questions. The interview questions were,

What knowledge, skills and personal qualities do you think Industrial Design education gives or should give to a student?,

What do you think Industrial Designers and Industrial Design education can contribute to a community or society both now and in the future?

Both questions were designed to discover respondents’ authentic thoughts about what competences are inherent in Industrial Design learning, as well as what Industrial Design-related competences are most relevant for the twenty-first century. The interviewer only asked further questions to draw out details and explanations from interviewees.

Interview procedure

All interviewees consented to have their interviews recorded except for one, whose interview was documented through notetaking and whose final interview document was emailed to them for verification. Notes were also taken during all other interviews. Consent documents for the interviews were used to collect a small amount of demographic data about the interviewees. Interview recordings were transcribed and analysed quantitatively and qualitatively with the help of NVivo software.

Mixed methods analysis was used. Both the rating survey and the semi-structured interviews were analysed quantitatively so that they could produce clear and comparable data sets. The semi-structured interviews were also analysed qualitatively in order to deepen understanding of the reasons behind the quantitative results and to uncover emergent new knowledge. Two text entry questions from the survey were also analysed qualitatively.

Survey analysis

The survey results were analysed as follows. Five-point scale rating data from the online survey platform were exported into spreadsheet software. The data were simplified into high ratings ( extensively present or strongly present ratings), moderate ratings ( moderately present ratings), and low ratings ( slightly present, not present or not applicable ratings) across the different competences and across the different education levels. They were then arranged into a series of 100% stacked bar charts. One hundred percent stacked bar charts were chosen as the main analysis and communication tools for this research because they had been successfully used to communicate to a broad audience in a comparable report (WEF, 2018 ).

A formative model was used to interpret the survey data. For example, where general competences such as creativity , were divided into several sub-competences, such as, fluency of idea generation , uncommon & original ideas , and flexibility in idea generation , a contribution from each sub-competence was taken to establish an overall value for the main competence.

Demographic data were tabulated and interpreted. Furthermore, the “project title” and “any further comments” data from the rating survey were analysed qualitatively by thematic analysis in order to identify unexpected insights and learn more about likely levels of error in the data.

Survey results

The university lecturer survey cohort was the only survey cohort to produce somewhat representative and generalisable data without unexpected demographic biases. There were 19 university lecturer respondents. This was estimated to be around 50% of that target population. The remainder of the survey study was described as exploratory. The 15 secondary teacher responses were given some weight in analysis because an SPSS mock MANOVA analysis had indicated that this number was only one short of being statistically meaningful. Values entered into the mock MANOVA analysis were for 11 outcome measures and four groups. G-Power was used assuming a significance of 5%, power of 80% and a large effect size (eta-squared = 0.14). However, it was noted that the secondary cohort was biased towards certain respondent types as seen in Table 3 . The vocational education and primary teacher cohorts could only be analysed superficially because these cohorts returned just six responses each. Therefore, the vocational education and primary teacher survey data will not be discussed in this paper. Table 3 . summarises the university and secondary survey respondent demographics and Fig.  1 and Fig.  2 show the 100% stacked bar charts that were used to analyse and communicate the university and secondary educator survey data.

Overview of survey results from university cohort, showing high, low, and moderate responses for each sub-competence

Overview of survey results from secondary cohorts, showing high, low, and moderate responses for each sub-competence

Overall, the survey results suggested substantial value and twenty-first century relevance in university level Industrial Design learning in Australia. They suggested relatively high value and twenty-first century relevance in the secondary-level Industrial Design settings studied. The university respondents had the strongest alignment with the twenty-first century competences in all cases except in the collaboration competence, where alignment was similar in the university and secondary cohorts. In the university survey cohort, the competences demonstrating particularly strong alignment with the top twenty-first century competences were problem solving, innovation capability, adaptability/flexibility, critical thinking, creativity , and environmental sustainability knowledge . Strong alignment was defined as a competence where 60% or more of respondents reported strong or extensive use, and/or fewer than 20% reported low or non-existent use. Sub-competences that showed strong alignment with the top twenty-first century competences in the university lecturer cohort were the digital skills sub-competences, technical and cognitive [digital] skills , and information networks , and the Science Technology Engineering Arts Mathematics (STEAM) sub-competences of Technology skills and knowledge , and Art skills & knowledge .

The sub-competences demonstrating low alignment with twenty-first century competences in the university cohort, defined as sub-competences where more than 50% of the university lecturer respondents reported low or non-existent use, and/or fewer than 33% reported high or extensive use, were [digital] communication networks ; the Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) sub-competences of Science skills & knowledge , Engineering skills & knowledge , Mathematical skills & knowledge ; and the entrepreneurial capability sub-competence, trade activities and/or being paid to design . Additionally, collaboration and Mathematics skills were evident at varied levels across the cohort, and cultural literacy seemed to be important only at a basic level.

In the secondary teacher data set, competences demonstrating strong alignment with twenty-first century competences, according to the definitions used above, were problem solving, and critical thinking. Sub-competences showing strong alignment with the top twenty-first century competences were adaptability ; the creativity sub-competences, fluent idea generation, and uncommon & original ideas ; the collaboration sub-competence of idea &/or resource sharing ; and the digital skills sub-competences, technical & cognitive [digital] skills , and use of information networks . The competences showing low alignment with the top twenty-first century competences in the secondary cohort were cultural literacy and entrepreneurial capability. Sub-competences with similarly low alignment in the secondary teacher cohort were the collaboration sub-competence of role/responsibility taking in a group or partnership ; the digital skills sub-competence of communication networks ; and the STEM sub-competences, Science skills & knowledge , Technology skills & knowledge , and Engineering skills & knowledge . Additionally, cultural literacy , environmental sustainability knowledge , collaboration , technology skills , Engineering skills , and entrepreneurial capability were found at very variable levels across the cohort, suggesting they were used very differently by different secondary teachers.

Text entry questions

The “project title” question asked educators to specify the title of the student project they were responding to the survey in relation to. Analysis of responses revealed that functional and technological projects with specified project outcomes were more prevalent in the secondary school cohorts, and open-ended and socially themed projects were more prevalent in the university cohorts. This may have resulted from different levels of psychosocial, psychomotor, and moral development between levels. Higher education levels would be expected to be drawn towards social and political projects (Kohlberg, 2016 ), and younger education levels may have needed to develop technical skills before applying them in creative ways (Cratty & Noble, 2016 ).

Differences between the cohorts

The reason the university cohort aligned more strongly with the top twenty-first century competences than the secondary cohort was not clear, as the survey had been designed to apply equally to all education levels studied. One possible explanation is that more complex projects are able to be run with older students than with younger students (Girgis et al., 2018 ). However, at senior secondary level, many Australian Design curricula run for a whole semester (Board of Studies NSW, 2013 ; QCAA, 2018 ; VCAA, 2017a ; VCAA, 2017b ) and senior secondary students should be capable of using many competences in that time. Further explanations for this finding were sought in the interview study.

Effects of biases and sources of error

There were a number of known biases affecting the rating data. The most obvious one arose from differences between the priorities of different secondary curricula and the different backgrounds of people teaching the secondary subjects. For example, secondary education results were skewed towards the “technical” and “making” priorities of Design Technology teachers and away from the more artistic priorities of Design teachers. Related but unknown biases would have arisen from the tertiary Industrial Design curricula represented in the study. This is because university respondents would have been following diverse curricula as a result of the self-regulation of Australian universities (Norton et al., 2018 ) and as a result of the inclusion of lecturers’ specialist knowledge in their own curricula.

Additionally, all the survey responses were biased towards the views of male respondents, city-based respondents, respondents based in NSW or Victoria, and Industrial Design and Design trained respondents. (Although many of these biases are likely to be representative of these cohorts.) Errors also resulted from inaccurate reading of survey instructions, variations in rating leniency amongst respondents, question order effects, demand biases, and social desirability biases.

It was anticipated that the interview study would provide triangulating data to validate the survey results. It was also anticipated that the interview data would provide insights into the relationship between what was physically produced in classes (as expressed in the surveys), and what was theoretically valued by stakeholders (as expressed in the interviews).

Interview analysis

Analysis of the interview data was primarily conducted using quantitative content analysis. This was done to ensure comparability between the survey study and the interview study. Some qualitative thematic analysis was also undertaken. Analysis was grounded in comparison with the existing twenty-first century competences literature, the existing Industrial Design competences literature, and the survey study. A hierarchical coding structure was developed in NVivo. This involved the creation of up to four hierarchical levels of grouped codes. Analysis of the final coding structure also involved cross referencing with the demographic data.

Interview results

The duration of interviews ranged from 11 to 66 min, with the majority of interviews going for between 18 and 44 min. As can be seen in Table 4 , opinions expressed in the interviews were more likely to come from females in the young adult or 45–54 age ranges. They were moderately more likely to relate to the secondary schooling context, and were much more likely come from a Victorian, city-based location. These biases resulted by chance, as interviewee recruitment was based partly upon who held the job roles targeted for the study, who agreed to be interviewed, who was able to be contacted, and which students were put forward by institutions as possible interviewees. Table 4 shows the demographic attributes of the interviewees.

The interview content analysis measured the number of interviewees mentioning each survey-related competence in combination with the number of times they mentioned them. It also identified any competences that were discussed as frequently as the survey competences. Figure  3 summarises the 14 most discussed survey-related competences in the interview study, as well as five competences that were discussed at least as frequently as the survey-related competences.

Summary of key interview data

Personal qualities , despite not having been identified as a top twenty-first century competence, was the most discussed competence in the interviews. Discussion incorporated sub-competences such as curiosity , experimental approach , confidence , resilience , perseverance , reflection , attention to detail , playfulness with materials & products, and ability to think on one’s feet . For example, Industrial Designer, ID1, spoke of the way resilience and perseverance, learned through Industrial Design education, had benefitted many areas of their life. They said,

[You learn] a way of sort of not becoming despondent or discouraged by little failures, which I think is really important because I think that’s one of the things that I learnt through Industrial Design that sort of, [pause] has run through the rest of my life.

And university lecturer, UT1, suggested that in order to encourage an experimental approach , students could be graded on how many genuine experiments they undertook in their projects, rather than on the production of high-quality presentation images or models.

The competences of problem solving , STEM, creativity, interpersonal skills , A rt, and environmental sustainability knowledge were also all discussed at length by the majority of interviewees. Additionally, their important sub-competences of real-life problems , empathy , understanding of product function , manufacturing knowledge , materials knowledge , drawing , and beauty and aesthetics were also all discussed at length. Comments included the following. Vocational education student, TS1, prioritised environmental sustainability knowledge over all else. They said, “I’ll mention the sustainability again because I think that’s what should be primarily focussed on”. Design teacher association representative, A1, spoke of Industrial Design education as a way of providing students with the agency and ability to tackle real life problems . They said, “We are hopefully empowering and supporting a load of young people who feel like they can come up with solutions or do something, just to make the world better”. While university student, US1, expressed a passion for materials and manufacturing knowledge . They stated, “a huge area which I’m really interested in, which is amazing, that’s super important, would be materials sciences and understanding different materials and their properties and how to use them in manufacturing”.

Critical thinking , digital skills , entrepreneurial capability , and communication skills were also discussed at substantial levels in the interviews. Particular attention was given to the sub-competence of design software including 3D modelling software . For example, vocational education student, TS1, described their acquisition of entrepreneurial skills when they said, “you learn how to operate a business, you learn how to contact people in industry, you learn how to make things, sell things”.

While Industrial Designer ID1 valued the communication skill of listening , stating, “you’ll do well if you’re able to listen very deeply and closely, and quickly synthesise information”. Over two thirds of interviewees discussed entrepreneurial capability and communication skills in detail and made an average of 3–4 mentions of adaptability/flexibility .

Ethical understanding was not included in the list of top twenty-first century competences used in this study, yet it was discussed more frequently by these interviewees than several of the top twenty-first century competences. For example, university leader, UL2, identified Industrial Design as a setting of strong tensions between actively ethical and actively unethical practice when they said, “I think Industrial Designers often struggle within their own minds about the ethics of Industrial Design, full-stop, because we kind of all know that we don’t need more consumer products”, but later reflected, “hopefully Industrial Design education produces graduates... as socially responsible problem solvers.... I think it is a trait of most graduates, I really do”.

Over half of the interviewees discussed each of the top twenty-first century competences of collaboration and cultural literacy. The final competence from the top twenty-first century competences list, innovation capability, was discussed moderately in the interviews, and at a lower rate than the three competences of organisation skills, spatial imagination , and research/investigation .

Several competences were identified at high levels in Industrial Design education. The personal qualities of curiosity , experimental approach , confidence , resilience , perseverance , reflection , and attention to detail were all present in these Industrial Design stakeholder interviews. They were also valued by the twenty-first century competences authors. The Industrial Design competences authors had not identified personal qualities at levels found in this study. This finding is, therefore, an original contribution to new knowledge. It suggests that Industrial Design education has a previously unpromoted potential for imparting valuable twenty-first century personal qualities to students.

Both the interviewees and the survey respondents saw problem solving as a key defining feature of Industrial Design education. This is consistent with the views of many Industrial Design competences authors (Erkarslan et al., 2011 ; O*Net, 2021 ; Tatlisu & Kaya, 2017 ; WDO, 2018 ; Yang, et al., 2005 ). Problem solving is also one of the most important twenty-first century competences (Adesida & Karuri-Sebina, 2013 ; Ananiadou & Claro, 2009 ; Donnelly & Wiltshire, 2014 ), so this finding suggests that problem solving is an important component of the value and twenty-first century relevance of Industrial Design education.

The combined analysis of the interviews and surveys suggested that STEM skills are vital to Industrial Design education but that the ideal Industrial Designer needs a broad but shallow knowledge of STEM. For example, interviewee ID1 spoke about designers having broad knowledge of many areas but being a “master of nothing”. They also said, “if you need to get something done you can draw on that little background you’ve got... little bit of understanding to talk the same language as the specialists”.

This idea is reminiscent of Brown and Wyatt’s ( 2010 ) concept of the “T-shaped person”.

Despite the fact that Art was extracted from STEAM for analysis and reporting, many interviewees mentioned STEM and Art skills in the same sentence, suggesting that Industrial Design education is a blend of Art and STEM (a STEAM discipline). For example, secondary teacher and design teacher association representative, A2, explained,

[Students] are thinking through more than the surface aesthetics of a product, they’re actually looking to how it functions. And that’s a very complex brain activity but it’s one that gives the mathematical student with a bent to creativity, a career path, and a really exciting one because of the breadth of Industrial Design.

Rhode Island School of Design ( 2018 ), and Taylor ( 2016 ) find that STEM is made more relevant when combined with Art to become STEAM. This suggests that Industrial Design education is a valuable vehicle for making the STEM education prioritised by governments, more relevant and engaging to students.

The vast majority of interviewees believed creativity was a crucial Industrial Design education competence. Creativity was similarly endorsed by the university survey cohort but less so by the secondary survey cohort. This was thought to be related to the “technical” and “making” priorities of the many secondary Design Technology teachers who responded to the survey. Creativity was the top twenty-first century competence identified in the literature (Education Council, 2019 ; EU, 2019 ; Frey & Osborne, 2017 ; Hajkowicz et al., 2016 ) and it was highly valued by the Industrial Design competences authors (Erkarslan, et al., 2011 ; Gunes, 2012 ; Lewis & Bonollo, 2002 ; O*Net, 2021 ; WDO, 2018 ; Yang et al., 2005 ). This suggests that the provision of creativity education is an important way that Industrial Design education provides value and relevance to twenty-first century students.

The top twenty-first century competence of interpersonal skills was not a surveyed competence. However, interviewees saw interpersonal skills as crucial in enabling Industrial Designers to connect with and manage relationships with peers, allied specialists, clients and end users. Interpersonal skills was also firmly prioritised by the twenty-first century competences authors (OECD, 2019 ; RAI & NBN, 2016 ; Voogt & Roblin, 2012 ). This suggests that Industrial Design education provides extensive twenty-first century value in this area. The sub-competence of empathy was of paramount importance to the interviewees. For example, vocational education student, TS2, explained the importance of Industrial Designers connecting with product end users. They said, “Like engineering, I reckon you probably get taught a bit, but they mainly make things work, whereas we connect more with the person who uses it, so we’re like the bridging gap between the user and the existing product”. This emphasis on empathy aligns with the views of many Industrial Design education theorists (Erkarslan et al., 2011 ; Lewis & Bonollo, 2002 ; NASAD, 2020 ; Tatlisu & Kaya, 2017 ; Yang et al., 2005 ) and twenty-first century authors (Bradlow, 2015 ; EU, 2019 ; Hajkowicz et al., 2016 ; Leadbeater, 2016 ).

Environmental sustainability knowledge was highly valued by participants. It was represented at broadly equivalent levels in the interviews, the survey study and the twenty-first century life literature. However, it was rarely mentioned in the twenty-first century competences literature and was mentioned moderately in the Industrial Design competences literature. This lower presence in the twenty-first century competences literature might reflect the input of corporations and governments in much of this literature (Voogt & Roblin, 2012 ; WEF, 2016a ; 2018 ) and might result from these organisations prioritising economic measures of value over social and environmental wellbeing. Interviewees often spoke of environmental problem solving, thus linking the competence of environmental sustainability knowledge with the valuable twenty-first century competence of problem solving . Some interviewees also valued the competence of environmental sustainability knowledge for its potential to teach students about the environmental stories behind consumer products used in their daily lives. For example, interviewee A2 said,

[Environmental sustainability knowledge]’s not taught anywhere else and without that understanding . . . they won’t think about the pros and cons of what they’re consuming, and I think it’s important to have it as part of education considering its social, cultural, environmental, financial, legal, ethical impact on everybody’s life. I mean yes, we’re a visual society but we’re also a consumer society and Industrial Design plays a major role in that.

This is likely to be a key way that Industrial Design education provides value and twenty-first century relevance to students who do not go on to become Industrial Designers.

Critical thinking was of relatively high importance to the interviewees, survey respondents and twenty-first century competences authors. It was slightly less valued in the Industrial Design competences literature. However, it is possible that critical thinking was somewhat overrepresented in the interviews because of its prominence in various Australian school curricula (ACARA, 2021 ; Board of Studies NSW, 2013 ; VCAA, 2017a , VCAA, 2017b ). Nevertheless, professional Industrial Designers were one of the groups most likely to discuss critical thinking, suggesting it belongs firmly in the Industrial Design curriculum.

The competence of digital skills was measured at roughly equivalent levels in the interviews, the surveys, the twenty-first century competences literature, and the Industrial Design competences literature. This suggests that Industrial Design education teaches digital skills at a relevant and appropriate level. However, the digital skills learning measured in the two studies did not entirely align with projections from the twenty-first century competences literature. The twenty-first century competences literature mentioned virtual reality (Gartner, 2017 ; Higgins, 2017 ) , artificial intelligence (Hajkowicz, 2016 ; WEF, 2020 ), the Internet of Things (Cerwall et al., 2018 ; Gartner, 2017 ; Lueth, 2018 ), the use of generative software (Autodesk, 2018 ), and programming capability (NBN & RIA, 2016 ; WEF, 2020 ) frequently but these topics were discussed very infrequently or not at all by the interviewees. This suggests they are areas that may need to be expanded in Australian Industrial Design education.

Entrepreneurial capability was valued more strongly by the interviewees than by the survey respondents. This might have been due to infrequent but regular programming of entrepreneurial learning at the university level and very infrequent but still regular programming of entrepreneurial learning at secondary level. Entrepreneurial capability was moderately less emphasised by the interviewees than by the twenty-first century competences authors. This suggests that Industrial Design learning would benefit from increased entrepreneurial training as promoted by Zhao ( 2012 ), Gunes ( 2012 ), and the European Union ( 2019 ). Because Industrial Design education is intimately entwined with commercialism, it is an ideal curriculum for imparting valuable entrepreneurial capabilities to twenty-first century students.

The top twenty-first century competence of communication skills was not included in the survey, but the interviewees discussed communication skills at broadly similar levels to the twenty-first century competences authors and the Industrial Design competences authors. Professional Industrial Designers, Industrial Design experts, and university staff and students were the most likely interviewees to discuss the importance of communication skills . This suggests that communication skills are crucial to the discipline of Industrial Design but that this fact is less well-known to non-experts. The types of communication skills discussed by interviewees included cross-cultural communication skills , presentation skills , persuasion skills , negotiation skills , listening skills, and visual communication skills . For example, Industrial Designer, ID2, explained the relevance of cross-cultural communication to many Australian Industrial Designers when they said, “we’re in Australia and a lot of suppliers are in China, so cultural differences and proximity challenges, all that sort of thing, so yeah, communication is an absolutely huge one”. Industrial Designer, ID1, echoed the views of Buchanan ( 1990 ), when they said, “I think it’s something that designers bring to a lot of projects is as the negotiator”.

The competence of adaptability/flexibility was measured at much higher levels in the surveys than the interviews. It was also much more valued by the twenty-first century competences authors than the Industrial Design competences authors. Explanations were not found for these disparities although it’s possible that the competence of adaptability/flexibility is present in Industrial Design education without it being something that readily comes to mind during discussions.

Although ethical understanding was not one of the very top twenty-first century competences, it was present in many classrooms and curricula and was prominent in many interviewee’s thoughts about Industrial Design education. For example, secondary teacher and Design association representative, A2, felt strongly about providing ethical Industrial Design education. They said, “[Students] need to be cognizant of how these things are made and what resources they’re using, and what personnel they’re using, in what country and culture they’re being made.” The high importance of ethical understanding in the interviews may have partly resulted from the imperative for education settings to deliver morality education (Education Council, 2019 ; EU, 2018 ), however ethical understanding is also recognised as an important component of Industrial Design education by the Industrial Design competences authors (Lewis & Bonollo, 2002 ; NASAD, 2020 ; Tatlisu & Kaya, 2017 ; Yang et al., 2005 ).

Collaboration was raised at approximately the same level in these interviews as in the survey study and the Industrial Design competences literature. However, the research participants endorsed collaboration far less than the twenty-first century competences authors did. Several interviewees mentioned the challenges of working collaboratively in education, saying things like, “The main problem at uni, is you always had the people that did all the work and the people that did none of the work.” (interviewee ID2), and, “this year I had a group project with someone who was very difficult, and you know, I’m difficult in ways, but I found that we really clashed” (interviewee US2). Combined analysis of the interviews and surveys indicated that collaboration must be taught in balance with independent work skills, so this partially accounts for the discrepancy. Interviewees classified as Industrial Design experts were most likely to discuss collaboration, and interviewees from education institutions were least likely to discuss it. This suggests the high importance of collaboration to the profession, as well as the difficulty of delivering collaboration skills within individualistic assessment systems.

Cultural literacy was observed at similarly moderate levels in the interviews, the surveys, the twenty-first century competences literature, and the Industrial Design competences literature. This suggests that it is taught at relevant levels in Industrial Design learning settings. Interviewees discussed cultural literacy in relation to understanding of one’s own and other cultures, as well as in relation to design history. Industrial Designer, ID2, spoke of the importance of, “trends, and themes, and... fashion or what people are drawn to and what’s coming up next, to imagine those things that don’t yet exist... and being aware of things, like outside your bubble, outside your existence”. However, university lecturer, UT1, expressed regret that design history seemed less prominent in Industrial Design education now than it once was. The non-surveyed competences of organisation skills, spatial imagination, and research & investigation were all spoken of at a similar level to cultural literacy.

Innovation capability was raised at much lower levels in the interviews than was seen in the survey responses, and at moderately lower levels than was seen in the twenty-first century competences literature. The reasons for this were unclear. However, results suggest that Industrial Design education is well equipped to impart the valuable twenty-first century competence of innovation capability, but that innovation capability is not the most important aspect of Industrial Design learning.

Recommendations

Synthesis of the research findings elicited the following recommendations. Recommendations relating to ways that Industrial Design education could be used to impart valuable twenty-first century competences to students at a range of levels are described as follows. Industrial Design education should be recognised by policy makers and education leaders as a valuable way of delivering twenty-first century competences, and of educating students about the products that surround them; whether students go on to become Industrial Designers or not. Industrial Design education should be recognised for its ability to impart valuable personal qualities to students. It should also be recognised as one of the most important vehicles used for delivering crucial entrepreneurial capabilities to students at a range of levels. Industrial Design education is an ideal format for entrepreneurial learning given that it provides a structure for identifying problems, opportunities, and needs, and eventually producing valuable outcomes. Further to this, Industrial Design education should be one of the top means of delivering STEAM education. STEAM education is likely a more engaging model for delivering valuable STEM skills and knowledge (RISD, 2018 ; Taylor, 2016 ).

Recommendations relating to ways that Industrial Design education should be amended to better impart valuable twenty-first century competences to students are as follows. Firstly, Industrial Design assessment structures at all levels should be reviewed to ensure they reward acquisition of the most important competences. A good example of this approach is university lecturer, UT1’s, suggestion that in order to encourage an experimental approach, students be graded on how many genuine experiments they undertake, rather than on the production of high-quality presentation images and models. Secondly, collaboration skills should be overtly taught within Industrial Design education. Frameworks that support fairness, process, and interpersonal relationships in relation to collaboration should be provided to students to support the acquisition of this challenging but important competence. Finally, although there is anecdotal evidence of many tertiary Industrial Design courses already incorporating programming, IoT, AR, VR, and emerging technologies, the results of this study suggest that some tertiary courses may not be including these areas very often. Therefore, it is recommended that tertiary, and possibly secondary, courses are reviewed to assess for the presence of sufficient programming, IoT, AR, VR, and emerging technologies content.

One general recommendation relating to environmental sustainability knowledge was also derived from this research. We recommend that environmental sustainability knowledge be recognised as an important twenty-first century competence in the literature. The twenty-first century life authors refer to it repeatedly (Davidson, 2005 ; Meadows et al., 1972 ; Randers, 2012 ; Turner, 2008 ) and the majority of participants in this research considered it as a crucial knowledge area. Environmental protection will be crucial across the globe over coming decades (Davidson, 2005 ; Meadows et al., 1972 ; Randers, 2012 , Turner, 2008 ) so all twenty-first century students should study it extensively in order to be able to problem solve in this area as they progress into the workforce. Environmental sustainability knowledge needs to be listed alongside creativity , problem solving , critical thinking, and all the other top twenty-first century competences.

Potential future research

The rating tool developed for this study could be adapted for a range of related purposes. For example, Artefact Analysis or Document Analysis could be conducted on student Industrial Design outcomes or assessment materials. Alternatively, the survey structure could be adapted for use by educators and education leaders to assess the twenty-first century relevance of different Design or non-Design curricula in their institutions. It is noted that the synthesis of knowledge coming from multidisciplinary areas continues to be a challenge, however if design education is to continue to be relevant to current public and political debates, it must actively readjust its focus to give students opportunities to learn more about both their discipline and themselves (Bernardi & Kowaltowski, 2010 ). This is relevant for all design disciplines and links to Ergenoglu ( 2015 ) highlighting key competences for universal design education; namely, building empathy, social and legal awareness, awareness regarding the physical environment, universal design knowledge, inclusive and universal design settings, best practices, typological studies and developing new approaches and design solutions (Ergenoglu, 2015 ); all of which could be studied in further detail mapped against other design disciplines besides Industrial Design. Additionally, as a substantial amount of design research explores the views and status of design educators, design students, and designers (Dorst, 2015 ; Findeli, 2001 ; Kimbell, 2012 ; Nichols, 2013 ; van Diggelen & Bruns Alonso, 2015 ), further research is recommended in the area of non-designer views on what design is and what it should be. This would be very instructive in relation to what design audiences want from designers.

Combined analysis of the interviews and surveys portrayed Industrial Design as a discipline that uses intellectual, interpersonal, and physical capabilities; and that can deliver value and twenty-first century relevance through a broad competence base including creativity, problem solving, critical thinking, communication, digital skills, STEM skills , and innovation capability .

Industrial Design education in Australia appears to deliver some twenty-first century competences at particularly high levels and these are, interpersonal skills, ethical understanding , and organisation skills, as known by the Industrial Design competences authors; as well as environmental sustainability knowledge; adaptability/flexibility ; and personal qualities such as curiosity, resilience, confidence, perseverance , and reflection ; a fact not widely documented in the existing Industrial Design competences literature. Industrial Design education is therefore likely to be an important vehicle for delivering these increasingly important soft skills and educating future students about increasingly urgent environmental sustainability principles.

This research has measured specific items of value and relevance in Industrial Design education, and it has covered a range of Industrial Design education levels not previously investigated as a whole. This research characterised Industrial Design education as imparting a very broad skills and knowledge base and a large number of crucial twenty-first century competences. Industrial Design education is likely to deliver particularly strong capabilities in the twenty-first century competences of personal qualities (including sub-competences such as curiosity, resilience, confidence, perseverance, and reflection ); interpersonal skills (especially empathy ); environmental sustainability knowledge ; organisation skills ; and ethical understanding . Industrial Design education may benefit from more overt teaching of collaboration skills, the nurturing of further entrepreneurial skills, and further inclusion of IoT, VR, AR, software development, and other emerging technologies. Environmental sustainability knowledge appears to be becoming increasingly important to Industrial Design students; and Industrial Design education appears to impart many important general life skills. It is recommended that Industrial Design education be used to deliver important twenty-first century competences from primary school level through to university level, and that its value be recognised through grants, public funding, and policy reform.

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Deighton, K., Kuys, B. & Tyagi, S. Industrial Design education in Australia: a competence analysis across primary, secondary and tertiary education levels. Int J Technol Des Educ 34 , 427–460 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-023-09822-0

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Chapter 10: Sources and Research

10.1 Types of Sources: Primary, Secondary, Tertiary

This chapter will help you learn about the difference between those types of sources, here is a quick and useful reference:

“Scholarly and Popular Sources” by Carnegie Vincent Library is licensed under CC BY

The determination of a text as “popular” or “scholarly/academic” is one way to classify it and to understand what type of information you are engaging with.  Another way to classify sources is by considering whether they are primary, secondary or tertiary. Popular sources can be primary, secondary, or tertiary. Scholarly sources, also, can be primary, secondary, or tertiary.

What is a Primary Source?

Primary sources are texts that arise directly from a particular event or time period. They may be letters, speeches, works of art, works of literature, diaries, direct personal observations, newspaper articles that offer direct observations of current events, survey responses, tweets, other social media posts, original scholarly research  (meaning research that the author or authors conduct themselves) or any other content that comes out of direct involvement with an event or a research study.

Primary research is information that has not yet been critiqued, interpreted or analyzed by a second (or third, etc) party.

Primary sources can be popular (if published in newspapers, magazines or websites for the general public) or academic (if written by scholars and published in scholarly journals).

Examples of primary sources:

• journals, diaries
• data from surveys or polls
• scholarly journal articles in which the author(s) discuss the methods and results from their own original research/experiments
• photos, videos, sound recordings
• interviews or transcripts
• poems, paintings, sculptures, songs or other works of art
• government documents (such as reports of legislative sessions, laws or court decisions, financial or economic reports, and more)
• Newspaper and Magazine articles that report directly on current events (although these can also be considered Secondary)
• Investigative journalism (sometimes considered Secondary as well)

What is a Secondary Source?

Secondary sources summarize, interpret, critique, analyze, or offer commentary on primary sources.

In a secondary source, an author’s subject is not necessarily something that he or she directly experienced. The author of a secondary source may be summarizing, interpreting or analyzing data or information from someone else’s research   or offering an interpretation or opinion on current events. Thus, the secondary source is one step away from that original, primary topic/subject/research study.

Secondary sources can be popular (if published in newspapers, magazines or websites for the general public) or academic (if written by scholars and published in scholarly journals).

Examples of secondary sources:

• book, movie or art reviews
• summaries of the findings from other people’s research
• interpretations or analyses of primary source materials or other people’s research
• histories or biographies
• political commentary
• Newspaper and Magazine articles that mainly synthesize others’ research or primary materials (remember, newspaper and magazine articles can also be considered primary, depending on the content)

What is a Tertiary Source?

Tertiary sources are syntheses of primary and secondary sources. The person/people who compose a tertiary text are summarizing, compiling, and/or paraphrasing others’ work. These sources sometimes do not even list an author. Often you would want to use a tertiary source to find both Primary and Secondary sources. Keep in mind that, too, that it may sometimes be difficult to categorize something as strictly tertiary, and that it may depend on how you decide to use the item in your research and writing. Your instructors will often not accept the sole use of tertiary sources for your papers. Instead, you should strive to only use tertiary sources to find more academic sources, as they often have titles of other works and links (f they are web-based) to more academic primary and secondary sources that you can use instead.

Tertiary sources can be popular or academic depending on the content and publisher.

Examples of tertiary sources include:

• encyclopedias
• dictionaries

“Primary, Secondary, & Tertiary Sources” by sccclibrary

Now that you know what kinds of sources exist, it is important to remember that various disciplines find certain types of evidence to be more acceptable and appropriate than others. For instance, while the Humanities may consider anything from passages of text to art appropriate evidence, certain sciences may prefer data and statistics. What is most important to remember, no matter the discipline for which you are writing and pulling evidence, is that the evidence is never enough by itself. You must always be sure to explain why, and how, that evidence supports your claims or ideas. For more information on types of evidence considered appropriate for each academic discipline, you may click   here for section 8.3

Thinking about Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources and your Research Strategy

• What kinds of primary sources would be useful for your research project? Why? Where will you find them? Are you more interested in popular primary sources or scholarly primary sources — and why?
• What kinds of secondary sources could be useful for your project – and why? Are you more interested in popular secondary sources or scholarly secondary sources – and why?
• What kinds of tertiary sources might you try to access? In what ways would this tertiary source help you in your research?

A Guide to Rhetoric, Genre, and Success in First-Year Writing by Melanie Gagich & Emilie Zickel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Research Skills Tutorial

• Turning A Topic Into A Research Question
• Getting Background Information About Your Topic
• Portfolio Activity 1
• Types of Information Sources
• Scholarly, Popular and Trade Information Sources

Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Information Sources

• Current and Retrospective Information Sources
• Information Sources for Different Audiences and Purposes
• Portfolio Activity 2
• Library Databases vs. the Web
• Creating a Concept Chart
• Boolean Operators
• Refining Results by Date, Peer Review and Document Type
• Advanced Searching
• Advanced Searching with Descriptors
• Descriptor Chaining
• Citation Chaining (or Reference Mining)
• Searching Outside the SUNY Empire Library
• Searching Google
• Portfolio Activity 3
• Understanding Search Results
• Saving Search Results
• Portfolio Activity 4
• Credible Sources
• What Does the Information Source Tell You About Itself?
• Reliability
• Some More About Validity
• Portfolio Activity 5
• What Is Citing?
• What Is a Citation?
• Citation Styles
• Citing Tools and Tips
• Practice Activity 6
• Practice Activity 7 - Final Project

What does primary vs. secondary vs. tertiary mean? 

The distinction between primary, secondary and tertiary sources hinges on how far from the original event or phenomenon the information source is created. Is it first-hand knowledge? A second-hand interpretation? A third-hand synthesis and summary of what is known? 

• Primary sources  are created as close to the original event or phenomenon as it is possible to be. For example, a photograph or video of an event is a primary source. Data from an experiment is a primary source. 
• Secondary sources  are one step removed from that. Secondary sources are based on or about the primary sources. For example, articles and books in which authors interpret data from another research team's experiment or archival footage of an event are usually considered secondary sources.
• Tertiary sources  are one further step removed from that. Tertiary sources summarize or synthesize the research in secondary sources. For example, textbooks and reference books are tertiary sources.

Why is this important? Because different kinds of research call for using primary, secondary, and tertiary sources in different ways. For example, a research paper usually requires a combination of primary and secondary sources.

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources

The video below describes in greater detail more about the differences between primary, secondary and tertiary sources, and how each is used in research.

Examples of Primary Sources

Where to find primary sources.

Unlike articles and books, primary sources are often unpublished, and that can make them harder to find. But there are many tools to help you locate them.

• Use a search engine to search for your topic, adding phrases like "primary sources," "letters," "newsreel," etc.
• Many libraries subscribe to databases of primary sources. The Library's primary source databases can be found in the  Primary Sources subject guide .
• Newspapers are key primary sources for past current events. Try searching newspaper websites like the Library of Congress's  Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers .
• In the sciences, peer-reviewed research articles are considered primary sources. This makes sense, because they are full of direct evidence in the form of data. 
• If your topic is literature, then old literature counts as a primary source.  Project Gutenberg  has digitized an incredible amount of public domain literature. 
• Cultural institutions often collect pictures, letters, diaries, archival materials, ephemera, etc. As it becomes faster and cheaper to do so, they are preserving this material and providing public access to it by scanning it and making it available on the Web. You will likely gain access to even more resources if you are able to visit the institution housing it in person. For starters, try  Library of Congress | American Memory .
• If you need statistics and datasets, try  UNdata  or  USA.gov | Reference Center | Data and Statistics

Primary Sources and Gray Literature

You may have noticed that there is an overlap between the topic of gray literature and the topic of primary sources.  Long story short - Not all Gray Literature is Primary Sources, and not every Primary Source is an example of Gray Literature. But here are some examples of things that are both:

• Annual reports
• Government reports
• Unpublished manuscripts
• A researcher's notes or logs.

Accessibility Note

Please note: If you need to request accommodations with content linked to on this guide, on the basis of a disability, please contact Accessibility Resources and Services by emailing them .  Requests for accommodations should be submitted as early as possible to allow for sufficient planning. If you have questions, please visit the Accessibility Resources and Services website .

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Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources

• Source Definitions & Examples
• Primary, Secondary, or Tertiary?
• RADAR Framework

Why would I use primary Sources?

Primary resources are direct records of events or research. They help us understand "what really happened" from the point of view of participants. Using these sources can help us form our own understandings of the events or research in question. 

Definitions of Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources (from Robert's guide)

Source definitions.

[by Nicholas Hayen]

Scope:  As you conduct research, you will consult different sources of information. A professor may request  primary ,  secondary , or  tertiary  sources. Depending on your subject and field of study, you may want to begin your research by looking at some secondary sources to get a good idea of what primary sources are available and what is being said about them. Then you can move on to looking at the primary sources to make your own interpretations.

Primary Sources

Definition:

Primary sources are original materials. They are from the time period involved and have not been filtered through interpretation or evaluation. Primary sources are original materials on which other research is based. They are usually the first formal appearance of results in physical, print or electronic format. They present original thinking, report a discovery, or share new information.

Note:  The definition of a primary source may vary depending upon the discipline or context.

Secondary Sources

Secondary sources are less easily defined than primary sources. Generally, they are accounts written after the fact with the benefit of hindsight. They are interpretations and evaluations of primary sources. Secondary sources are not evidence, but rather commentary on and discussion of evidence. However, what some define as a secondary source, others define as a tertiary source. Context is everything.

Tertiary Sources

Tertiary sources consist of information which is a distillation and collection of primary and secondary sources.

Source Examples

• Artifacts (e.g. coins, plant specimens, fossils, furniture, tools, clothing, all from the time under study);
• Audio recordings (e.g. radio programs)
• Internet communications on email, listservs;
• Interviews (e.g., oral histories, telephone, e-mail);
• Journal articles published in peer-reviewed publications;
• Newspaper articles written at the time;
• Original Documents (i.e. birth certificate, will, marriage license, trial transcript);
• Photographs
• Proceedings of Meetings, conferences and symposia;
• Records of organizations, government agencies (e.g. annual report, treaty, constitution, government document);
• Survey Research (e.g., market surveys, public opinion polls);
• Video recordings (e.g. television programs);
• Works of art, architecture, literature, and music (e.g., paintings, sculptures, musical scores, buildings, novels, poems).
• Bibliographies (also considered tertiary);
• Biographical works;
• Commentaries, criticisms;
• Dictionaries, Encyclopedias (also considered tertiary);
• Journal articles (depending on the discipline can be primary);
• Magazine and newspaper articles (this distinction varies by discipline);
• Monographs, other than fiction and autobiography;
• Textbooks (also considered tertiary);
• Web site (also considered primary).
• Bibliographies (also considered secondary);
• Chronologies;
• Dictionaries and Encyclopedias (also considered secondary);
• Directories;
• Fact books;
• Guidebooks;
• Indexes, abstracts, bibliographies used to locate primary and secondary sources;
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How to Research Guide

• What is Research
• Research Terms
• Subject vs. Keyword
• Crafting Searches

Primary, Secondary, & Tertiary

• Primary, Secondary, & Tertiary Sources

Primary vs. Secondary

• Credible Resources
• Quantitative Research
• Qualitative Research
• Qualitative vs. Quantitative
• Scientific Method
• Literature Review

A primary source is an original document/image, the results of an experiment, statistical data, first-hand account, or creative work.  A secondary source is something written about or using primary sources.  A teritary source is a collection of primary and secondary sources.

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2.5: Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources

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• Cheryl Lowry
• The Ohio State University via Ohio State University Libraries

Primary, Secondary & Tertiary Sources

Another way to categorize information is by whether information is in its original format or has been reinterpreted.

Another information category is called publication mode and has to do with whether the information is

• Firsthand information (information in its original form, not translated or published in another form).
• Secondhand information (a restatement, analysis, or interpretation of original information).
• Third-hand information (a summary or repackaging of original information, often based on secondary information that has been published).

The three labels for information sources in this category are, respectively, primary sources, secondary sources, and tertiary sources. Here are examples to illustrate the first- handedness, second-handedness, and third-handedness of information:

When you make distinctions between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources, you are relating the information itself to the context in which it was created. Understanding that relationship is an important skill that you’ll need in college, as well as in the workplace. Noting the relationship between creation and context helps us understand the “big picture” in which information operates and helps us figure out which information we can depend on. That’s a big part of thinking critically, a major benefit of actually becoming an educated person.

Primary Sources – Because it is in its original form, the information in primary sources has reached us from its creators without going through any filter. We get it firsthand. Here are some examples that are often used as primary sources:

• Any literary work, including novels, plays, and poems.
• Breaking news.
• Advertisements.
• Music and dance performances.
• Eyewitness accounts, including photographs and recorded interviews.
• Blog entries that are autobiographical.
• Scholarly blogs that provide data or are highly theoretical, even though they contain no autobiography.
• Artifacts such as tools, clothing, or other objects.
• Original documents such as tax returns, marriage licenses, and transcripts of trials.
• Websites, although many are secondary.
• Correspondence, including email.
• Records of organizations and government agencies.
• Journal articles that report research for the first time (at least the parts about the new research, plus their data).

Secondary Source – These sources are translated, repackaged, restated, analyzed, or interpreted original information that is a primary source. Thus, the information comes to us secondhand, or through at least one filter. Here are some examples that are often used as secondary sources:

• All nonfiction books and magazine articles except autobiography.
• An article or website that critiques a novel, play, painting, or piece of music.
• An article or web site that synthesizes expert opinion and several eyewitness accounts for a new understanding of an event.
• The literature review portion of a journal article.

Tertiary Source – These sources further repackage the original information because they index, condense, or summarize the original.

Typically, by the time tertiary sources are developed, there have been many secondary sources prepared on their subjects, and you can think of tertiary sources as information that comes to us “third-hand.” Tertiary sources are usually publications that you are not intended to read from cover to cover but to dip in and out of for the information you need. You can think of them as a good place for background information to start your research but a bad place to end up. Here are some examples that are often used as tertiary sources:

• Dictionaries.
• Guide books, including the one you are now reading.
• Survey articles.
• Bibliographies.
• Encyclopedias, including Wikipedia.
• Most textbooks.

Tertiary sources are usually not acceptable as cited sources in college research projects because they are so far from firsthand information. That’s why most professors don’t want you to use Wikipedia as a citable source: the information in Wikipedia is far from original information. Other people have considered it, decided what they think about it, rearranged it, and summarized it–all of which is actually what your professors want you , not another author, to do with information in your research projects.

Activity: Which Kind of Source?

Open activity in a web browser.

The Details Are Tricky — A few things about primary or secondary sources might surprise you:

• Sources become primary rather than always exist as primary sources.

It’s easy to think that it is the format of primary sources that makes them primary. But that’s not all that matters. So when you see lists like the one above of sources that are often used as primary sources, it’s wise to remember that the ones listed are not automatically already primary sources. Firsthand sources get that designation only when researchers actually find their information relevant and use it.

For instance: Records that could be relevant to those studying government are created every day by federal, state, county, and city governments as they operate. But until those raw data are actually used by a researcher, they cannot be considered primary sources.

Another example: A diary about his flying missions kept by an American helicopter pilot in the Viet Nam War is not a primary source until, say, a researcher uses it in her study of how the war was carried out. But it will never be a primary source for a researcher studying the U.S. public’s reaction to the war because it does not contain information relevant to that study.

• Primary sources, even eyewitness accounts, are not necessarily accurate. Their accuracy has to be evaluated, just like that of all sources.
• Something that is usually considered a secondary source can be considered a primary source, depending on the research project.

For instance, movie reviews are usually considered secondary sources. But if your research project is about the effect movie reviews have on ticket sales, the movie reviews you study would become primary sources.

• Deciding whether to consider a journal article a primary or a secondary source can be complicated for at least two reasons.

First, journal articles that report new research for the first time are usually based on data. So some disciplines consider the data to be the primary source, and the journal article that describes and analyzes them is considered a secondary source.

However, particularly in the sciences, the original researcher might find it difficult or impossible (he or she might not be allowed) to share the data. So sometimes you have nothing more firsthand than the journal article, which argues for calling it the relevant primary source because it’s the closest thing that exists to the data.

Second, even journal articles that announce new research for the first time usually contain more than data. They also typically contain secondary source elements, such as a literature review, bibliography, and sections on data analysis and interpretation. So they can actually be a mix of primary and secondary elements. Even so, in some disciplines, a journal article that announces new research findings for the first time is considered to be, as a whole, a primary source for the researchers using it.

ACTIVITY: Under What Circumstances?

Instructions: Look at each of the sources listed below and think of circumstances under which each could become a primary source. (There are probably many potential circumstances for each.) So just imagine you are a researcher with projects that would make each item firsthand information that is relevant to your work. What could a project be about that would make each source relevant firsthand information? Our answers are at the bottom of the page, but remember that there are many more–including the ones you think of that we didn’t!

• Fallingwater, a Pennsylvania home designed and constructed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1930s.
• Poet W.H. Auden’s elegy for Y.S. Yeats.
• An arrowhead made by (Floriday) Seminole Native Americans but found at Flint Ridge outside Columbus, Ohio.
• E-mail between the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, and her staff about North Korea.
• A marriage license.

Despite their trickiness, what primary sources usually offer is too good not to consider using because:

• They are original. This unfiltered, firsthand information is not available anywhere else.
• Their creator was a type of person unlike others in your research project, and you want to include that perspective.
• Their creator was present at an event and shares an eyewitness account.
• They are objects that existed at the particular time your project is studying.

Particularly in humanities courses, your professor may require you to use a certain number of primary sources for your project. In other courses, particularly in the sciences, you may be required to use only primary sources.

What are considered primary and secondary sources can vary from discipline to discipline. If you are required to use primary sources for your research project, before getting too deep into your project check with your professor to make sure he or she agrees with your choices. After all, it’s your professor who will be grading your project. A librarian, too, can verify your choices. Just remember to take a copy of your assignment with you when you ask, because the librarian will want to see the original assignment. After all, that’s a primary source!

POSSIBLE AnswerS TO ACTIVITY: Under What Circumstances?

• You are doing a study of the entrances Wright designed for homes, which were smaller than other architects of the time typically designed entrances.
• Your research project is about the Auden-Yeats relationship.
• Your research project is about trade among 19th century Native Americans east of the Mississippi River.
• Your research project is on how Ambassador Haley conveyed a decision about North Korea to her staff.
• You are writing about the life of a person who claimed to have married several times, and you need more than her statements about when those marriages took place and to whom.

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources: Overview

• How-to Home
• Audio Visuals
• Local History on Demand
• Print Resources
• E-Resources
• Web Resources
• Newspapers and Microfilm

In this guide, users will learn what distinguishes each source type and locate primary source material from print, electronic, web-based, governmental, and archival material.  This Research Guide includes a "How To" tab, designed to instruct users on what search terms and descriptors to use when searching, as well as print and electronic guides which show how, where, and what to search.

Please note: The examples of available print, electronic, and web-based primary sources are just a sampling and by no means exhaustive.  We encourage you to visit the "How To" page for instructions on how to blend search terms relative to your research topic with subject headings that will assist you in locating primary sources. 

Primary Sources

Examples Include:

• Art work - e.g. painting, sculptures, poems, musical scores, etc.
• Artifacts - e.g. periodic clothing, coins, fossils, furniture, etc.
• Audio recordings
• Court records
• Eyewitness accounts
• Internet communications - e.g. emails
• Legal documents - e.g. birth/death certificates, marriage licenses, etc.
• Newspaper articles from period
• Photographs

Here are some questions that may help you evaluate primary sources:

• What was the situation that prompted the writer to compose the document?
• What was the writer's source of information?
• What other primary sources might expand, clarify or contradict this document

Secondary Sources

• Biographies
• Commentaries
• Literary Criticism
• Magazine articles
• Peer-reviewed journal articles
• Reviews - e.g. book, performance

Here are some questions that may help you evaluate secondary sources:

• What is the writer's expertise in this field?
• What motivated the writer to compose this document?
• How is this person evaluated by others who are known to be experts in this field?
• What is the argument this writer is making about the topic?
• What contradictions do other sources offer?
• How credible are they?
• How is this book/article evaluated by others in the field?
• Is the information current?  

Tertiary Sources

• Bibliographies
• Dictionaries
• Encyclopedias

Please Note : What sources are considered Secondary and Tertiary may depend on your own institution and more specifically, your discipline.

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