ABSTRACT
Professional and student industrial designers employ an extensive range of media and techniques at various times during creative practice. This chapter reports on research to enhance communication during product development by making tacit knowledge on the use of design representations explicit for both students and practitioners. This was achieved through the development of two design tools called CoLab and iD Cards. It disseminated the research output with the support of the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) in the UK and Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) in the USA. The chapter concludes that the use of appropriate research methods that integrate literature based sources with practitioner engagement has the potential to elicit valuable and unexpected tacit knowledge that can contribute to student learning. By including key design and technical information, the tools serve as decision-making guides and help identify representations used during design stages.
