Encyclopedia of Mechanisms Concept Validation
To validate a design concept, we can use an Encyclopedia of Mechanisms validation in addition to Wikipedia Concept Validation. While Wikipedia is an encyclopedia of mechanisms in some fashion, there are more dedicated books that explain different functional mechanisms. Having a good perspective on what resources are available is critical to being a good designer. We believe that good design can be taught - and the best starting point to good design is to understand existing mechanisms - before one begins to innovate their own. Further, History of Technology provides good insight on working mechanisms, and how they evolved over time.
Some excellent encyclopedias of mechanisms are: (needs to be graded for quality and usefulness)