Understanding the Criticality of Differences in Cross-Cultural Design

2020 ◽  
pp. 56-82
Author(s):  
Huatong Sun
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
User Experience ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
User Engagement ◽  
Media Design ◽  
Design Practices ◽  
Cultural Design ◽  
Design Resources ◽  
Ways Of Life

This chapter articulates a practice-oriented critical vision of cultural differences to global design and explores how we should productively engage differences in global design practices. Cultural differences in this book refer to the differences that emerge from various categorical identifications such as ethnicity, race, age, class, religion, gender, sexuality, and ability and manifests as ways of life. A practice-oriented critical vision sees cultural differences as dynamic, relational, emergent, contingent, and liminal, in contrast to a simplistic interpretation of cultural differences presented by multiculturalism and other theories. This chapter first reviews why cultural differences matters and then organizes the discussion around four sets of questions: First, how does difference come into being? Second, what is the nature of difference ontologically? Third, how should we treat difference methodologically and practically? Fourth, as designers, how can we turn differences into design resources? And how should we design with, across, and for cultural differences? Based on the articulation of a practice-oriented critical vision of differences that turns communication deficits into design resources, the culturally localized user experience (CLUE) approach is thus developed into the approach of culturally localized user engagement and empowerment (CLUEE), simplified as the CLUE2 (CLUE-squared) approach. Examples of race construction and social media design cases are provided to enrich the discussion.

Global Social Media Design

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huatong Sun
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
User Engagement ◽  
Design Standards ◽  
Media Design ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
Design Resources ◽  
Value Propositions ◽  
Globalized World

Social media users fracture into tribes, but social media ecosystems are globally interconnected technically, socially, culturally, and economically. At the crossroads, Huatong Sun, author of Cross-Cultural Technology Design, presents theory, method, and case studies to uncover the global interconnectedness of social media design and reorient universal design standards. Centering on the dynamics between structure and agency, Sun draws on practices theories and transnational fieldwork and articulates a critical design approach. The culturally localized user engagement and empowerment (CLUE2, or CLUE-squared) framework extends from situated activity to social practice and connects macro institutions with micro interactions to redress asymmetrical relations in everyday life. Why were Japanese users not crazed about Facebook? Would Twitter have been more successful than its copycat Weibo in China if not banned? How did mobilities and value propositions play out in the competition of WhatsApp, WeChat, LINE, and KakaoTalk for global growth? Illustrating the cultural entanglement with a relational view of design, Sun provides three provocative accounts of cross-cultural social media design and use. Concepts such as affordance, genre, and uptake are demonstrated as design tools to bind the material with the discursive and leap from the critical to the generative for culturally sustaining design. Sun calls to reshape the crossroads into a design square where differences are nourished as design resources, where diverse discourses interact for innovation, and where alternative design epistemes thrive from the local. This timely book will appeal to researchers, students, and practitioners who design across disciplines, paradigms, and boundaries to bridge differences in this increasingly globalized world.

Reshaping Crossroads Into a Design Square

2020 ◽  
pp. 188-208
Author(s):  
Huatong Sun
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
User Engagement ◽  
Global Approach ◽  
Relational View ◽  
Relational Approach ◽  
Media Design ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
New Ideas

The concluding chapter summarizes the culturally localized user engagement and empowerment (CLUE2) approach and calls for reshaping the crossroads of global social media design into a design square where a spectrum of thoughts, design traditions, discursive conventions, and epistemological orders converge and interact to spark new ideas. This chapter consists of two parts. The first part reviews the three keywords of the CLUE2 approach—discursive affordances, technological genres, and local uptakes—and discusses how they serve as an agent for change and transformation in routinized everyday practices on a global cultural circuit. The second part highlights three design and research heuristics for this critical, global approach: articulating practice-based human–technology relations, piecing together fragmented experiences into global processes, and enabling and engaging cultural differences out of positionality and reflexivity. This critical social practice view of the CLUE2 approach links design and innovation on the global cultural circuit and promotes a relational view of design, contributing to an uprising school for a relational approach of design that comes from multiple disciplines.

A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Motives and Patterns of Brand Recommendation in Social Media

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Castulus Kolo ◽  
Stefan Widenhorn ◽  
Anna-Lena Borgstedt ◽  
David Eicher
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Principal Component Analysis ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Substantial Influence ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
The Us ◽  
Do So

This article describes how today, social media enable users to comment on brands in a multitude of ways. Although it is undoubted that this can have a substantial influence on the way brands impact on consumers, comparatively little is known about what motivates consumers to recommend brands in social media and whether there are cultural differences therein. This article aims to determine the factors leading to either positive or negative communication about brands on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and brand-related blogs based on a representative sample from Germany and the US, each with 1,000 adults. Complementary to an analysis of factors determining a general inclination to recommend, a principal component analysis of the diverse motives to do so exhibits patterns being largely consistent in a cross-cultural perspective, however, with differences in specific practices concerning gender, age, and formal education. A cluster analysis as well as taking a look at “influencers” provide a basis for developing differentiated strategies of brand communication and management respectively.

Stakeholder Perceptions of Requirements Elicitation Interviews With and Without Prototypes in a Cross-Cultural Design Setting

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianna J. Coulentianos ◽  
Shanna R. Daly ◽  
Kathleen H. Sienko
Keyword(s):  
Stakeholder Participation ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Requirements Elicitation ◽  
Problem Definition ◽  
Novel Device ◽  
Design Practices ◽  
Cultural Design ◽  
Stakeholder Preferences ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Contraceptive Implants

Abstract Using prototypes during design requirements elicitation (RE) interviews with stakeholders can encourage stakeholder participation. Stakeholder engagement and the quality of the feedback provided can be influenced by the format of the RE interview, especially in a cross-cultural design setting. Although the selection of design practices is typically motivated by designer preferences and design outcomes, deliberate consideration of stakeholder preferences and perceptions may lead to a more nuanced understanding of when and how to best leverage particular design practices. This study investigated the influence of the number of prototypes (here, assistive devices for removing subdermal contraceptive implants) presented during RE interviews on Ghanaian stakeholder preferences. The findings revealed that most participants (n = 34, 94%) preferred the presence of one or more prototypes compared to no prototypes during the interviews because prototypes enabled participants to better understand the design space, provide accurate feedback, and evaluate ideas. Prototypes provided participants with a basis for answering designers’ questions. When they were not provided with a prototype, participants explained that they imagined a novel device concept or recalled a device from prior experiences. Further, participants preferred the use of three prototypes versus a single prototype because multiple prototypes enabled them to compare across designs and make choices. These findings suggest that designers seeking requirements-related input from stakeholders at the problem definition stage should consider using one or more prototypes, unless they are interested in collecting design ideas from stakeholders.

The Tipping Point

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-39
Author(s):  
Soo Kwang Oh ◽  
Seoyeon Hong ◽  
Hee Sun Park
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Media Usage ◽  
Current Shift ◽  
Perceived Relationships

While previous researchers have addressed motivations to join and continue using social media, this paper focuses on why users quit certain social media and change their favorite platforms, such as the current shift from Facebook to Twitter to Instagram and Snapchat. Furthermore, this exploratory study seeks to build an understanding of social media usage and motivations for switching from a cross-cultural perspective by comparing findings from Korean and U.S. users. Findings from 19 focus group sessions (n = 118) highlight influences regarding modes of usage, user control, commitment, addiction, privacy, perceived relationships, self-construals, and social/cultural trends. Findings are further analyzed and compared in light of relevant theoretical frameworks and cultural differences.

A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Motives and Patterns of Brand Recommendation in Social Media

2019 ◽  
pp. 388-406
Author(s):  
Castulus Kolo ◽  
Stefan Widenhorn ◽  
Anna-Lena Borgstedt ◽  
David Eicher
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Principal Component Analysis ◽  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Substantial Influence ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
The Us

This article describes how today, social media enable users to comment on brands in a multitude of ways. Although it is undoubted that this can have a substantial influence on the way brands impact on consumers, comparatively little is known about what motivates consumers to recommend brands in social media and whether there are cultural differences therein. This article aims to determine the factors leading to either positive or negative communication about brands on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and brand-related blogs based on a representative sample from Germany and the US, each with 1,000 adults. Complementary to an analysis of factors determining a general inclination to recommend, a principal component analysis of the diverse motives to do so exhibits patterns being largely consistent in a cross-cultural perspective, however, with differences in specific practices concerning gender, age, and formal education. A cluster analysis as well as taking a look at “influencers” provide a basis for developing differentiated strategies of brand communication and management respectively.

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