053 Literature Reviews

The written collection and synthesis of research on a given topic

• These are intended to distill information from published sources, capturing the essence of previous research or projects to inform the current project.

• Strategies for organizing may be categorical, chronological, thematic, or methodological.

• Internet resources have expedited searches but judgment is needed to ensure relevance and credibility of sources.

• May include books, chapters, journal and magazine articles, theses and dissertations, corporate and academic websites and blogs, and past design projects.

• The guiding factor in selecting literature should be relevance, clearly suggesting how it informed the design investigation.

• Literature reviews should be accurately referenced using a consistent bibliographic style.

See also   Evidence-Based Design • Secondary Research • Unobtrusive Measures

Extracting salient information from precedent research and projects through comprehensive literature reviews is a critical step in laying the foundation and contextualizing the design inquiry.