Exploring Cross-cultural Communication In Network Marketing – Cross-cultural design is no walk in the park To be effective, designers need to consider not only language differences, but also cultural tendencies, values, customs and taboos.
Authors are vetted experts in their fields and write on topics in which they have demonstrated expertise All our content is reviewed and validated by experts in the same field
Jonatas is a detail-oriented digital art director who uses UX, UI, and visual design to make technology simple and accessible to everyone.
Designers at global companies often work with geographically distributed teams. We also regularly work on digital products designed for global consumption for clients located around the world. Yet designers, forgetting the wider world out there, tend to live in a bubble and focus only on their local culture, tradition and language.
Cross-cultural design presents incredibly complex challenges—both linguistic and cultural. However, most designers mistakenly assume that designing products for different cultures only requires language translation (localization), currency switching, and updating some images to represent the local culture. The road to successful cross-cultural design with great UX is more complicated, and full of pitfalls
Who can forget the seminal cautionary tale of why Chevrelet's “Nova” failed in Latin America? The story claims the branding failed because the name “Nova” means “no go” in Spanish. This story of standard branding has been recounted to generations of business students as an object lesson in the failure to conduct reliable, in-depth cross-cultural research. There's just one problem with the story: It's not true
When it launched in India in late 2018, Amazon faced a serious problem due to lack of cultural knowledge and extensive UX research. They can't figure out why consumers in India aren't using their primary driver of revenue: finding products to buy on the home page of a mobile site. It turns out that the glass icon associated with search in India is nothing It made no sense to them
When the UI was tested, most people thought the icon represented a ping-pong paddle! As a solution, Amazon kept the magnifying glass but added a search field with a Hindi textwhere people can start a search.
When designing cross-cultural products, designers not only have to contend with different languages, dialects, and dimensions of national culture, but also cultural differences in color psychology and mental models. Furthermore, the direction of reading from culture to culture adds another layer of complexity because the text can be written left-to-right (LTR), right-to-left (RTL), and top-to-bottom.
With some languages, “mirror design” is something designers need to consider when designing for both LTR and RTL languages. Everything from text to images, navigation patterns and CTAs (call-to-actions) should be focused on.
Designers must also be aware of using culturally appropriate imagery in products that reach the culture. An image that may be perfectly acceptable in Western culture may also be considered inappropriate in some Eastern countries. Different attitudes towards gender, clothing and religion in different parts of the world call for designers to be very careful when working with images.
If a designer is not familiar with a particular culture, it is critical that they spend some time researching what is appropriate in tone from culture to culture, making sure to include every element in the UI: text, images, icons, microcopy, and more. .
Designers have to account for text in different languages, which is known as “text diffusion”. Working with English, German and Japanese for the same text will give very different results Switching from English to Italian phrases will sometimes expand the text by almost 300%! Not accounting for word length differences in different languages or giving UI elements enough padding will create a boatload of work down the line as the screen tsunami has to be adjusted to accommodate switches to other languages.
Designing for global markets has long existed and predates designing for digital products. Cross-cultural design research is rooted in the work of two individuals: Fons Trumpeners and Gert Hofstede.
Trumppenners is best known for his “Seven Dimensions of Culture,” which he published in “Riding the Wave of Culture.” The model is the result of interviews with more than 46,000 managers in 40 countries.
Hofstede also challenges traditional narrow views of language and culture Everyone knows that our spoken pronunciation develops based on where we grew up Less talked about, though, is the fact that how we feel and act is also a form of expression influenced by our locale.
The cultural dimension represents the cultural tendencies that distinguish countries (rather than individuals) from one another. Country scores on the scale are relative, as we are all human, and at the same time we are all unique In other words, culture can only be used meaningfully in comparison
Let's look at three examples of cultural differences: how people respond to authority, how people see themselves as individuals or as part of a group, and how comfortable people in different cultures are with uncertainty. Examples cross over between cross-cultural user experience design and behavioral design, and all aspects must be considered when designing for different cultures.
Hofstede ranked each country on his Power Distance Index (PDI), which measured how societies perceive power inequality. Some cultures expect information to come from an authoritative position, while others place less stock in expertise and certification.
The implication for digital design is that authoritative language or images may perform well in high power distance cultures, but users in low power distance cultures may respond similarly and prefer to see something closer to less informal popular images. of everyday life
How do we motivate people in a collectivist vs. an individualistic culture? Does our product promote individual or collective success? How do we reward users? Some societies value youth, where knowledge and experience are valued elsewhere Hofstede measures this on the Individualism versus Collectivism Index (IDV). Countries with higher numbers on the index are more private
When it comes to the Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) dimension, culture and cultures less dependent on rules respond to more emotional cues. Conversely, a society that is uncomfortable with uncertainty prefers clear and distinct choices How does this different culture respond to the unexpected, the unknown or the situation?
For example, Germany scores high on the IDV index; Therefore, it generally avoids uncertainty Accordingly, products designed for Germany should give people a logical order to decide Countries lower on the scale may offer people more freedom and a more relaxed exploration of the product with more emphasis on emotion
What about risk aversion in a culture? For example, if an e-commerce site requires Japanese customers to submit their credit card information immediately upon registration, it will result in a high abandonment rate.
Gaining micro-level insights through direct observation is at the heart of human-centered design thinking. When engaging in cross-cultural design projects, proper user research is critical to achieving a frictionless digital user experience across borders. Typically, this means going out into the field to meet people where they live and work, which helps designers understand specific needs and envision possible futures.
People in different cultures interact with information in different ways People in Russia are used to different cultural conventions when using digital products, compared to people in Egypt. The need for designers to thoroughly research and understand local customs, cultural dimensions, cross-cultural psychology, and local UI patterns cannot be understated because it will be the key to success or failure.
Research may include primary equipment used by the target market and potential challenges with internet connectivity With less powerful devices on poor network connections, designers can take advantage of AMP technology (accelerated mobile pages), use adaptive design, or use progressive web apps to speed up mobile sites. They can design mobile apps in a way that detects poor network connectivity and subsequently serves stripped-down core functionality, allowing them to work offline or with spotty connections.
Additionally, not only is it important for a native speaker to perform appropriate language checks, but it is equally important for a content expert to perform cultural checks. This includes checking images, colors, abbreviations, phrasing, and idioms to ensure they are culturally appropriate and resonate with local audiences.
User research is the direct assessment of behavior based on observation It's about understanding people's beliefs and practices on their terms For example, seeing people in their natural environment gives designers a better understanding of how people live and use digital products, which helps them design products that really apply to them.
Research is primarily exploratory research and is used to quantify problems by generating data that can be converted into useful statistics. Some traditional data collection methods include various types of surveys, longitudinal studies, website interceptors, online polls, and product usage analytics.
Looking at the practical aspects of a cross-cultural design project, designers need
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