Below are some suggested starting places to start your searches for client "needs".

Warning: DO NOT contact the client or other interest-holders directly during the project!

Engineers need to understand client "needs" to provide a good basis for the design process. It is also an important skill that the professional engineer needs to develop to create useful engineering solutions for their clients.

You may not be a member of the community or user group you are designing for and therefore need to do some background research to develop a better understanding. This type of research may require a comprehensive search using a variety of sources including scholarly, academic, technical, AND non-scholarly.

General background information can often be found in the library catalogue. Knovel can be used to find general technical information in engineering technology.

Reports, data, maps, histories, and surveys can help you better understand a community. These can include government publications, census data, market research, industry research, etc. Below are some guides to help you get started. But! This type of research is difficult so reach out to the Research Help Desk when needed.

Government information and reports and other non-scholarly resources can be found in an open web search. It is especially important to test the credibility of items from open web searches using the CRAAP test. 

You may also find community information in other non-technical scholarly sources. 

While newspaper articles can be found on the open web, the guide below will give you access to U of T's paid subscriptions to many newspapers.

Use subjects A to Z to find suggested resources for different fields.