30. PROCESS BOOK // Week 3

Favorite Quotes

"It helps to be able to quantify cultures. Importantly, this is not a way to make blanket statements about people from certain countries, but a way to clarify how groups interact with each other and the internet." - Senongo Akpem, "Cultural Factors in Web Design"

This is very true because cultural variables are not just interesting facts about the difference between high context/low context cultures. They say something important about the ways in which people of these cultures transmit and receive information, which is highly important for website design (information hierarchy, visuals, content, formal vs. informal language, etc.)

"In  times  when  interactive  systems  need  to  provide  support  for  an  ever  increasing  amount  of  material  and  make  it  available  for  local-language  populations  across  the  world,  or  even  the  emerging  multi-cultureless  of  many  countries,  the   "on-size-fits-all"   approach   is   no   longer   applicable." - Isabela Gasparini, "Vive la différence! : a survey of cultural-aware issues in HCI"

Even when the content is translated into the local language but everything else stays "one-size-fits-all", it can result in poor performance, where the user is not able to find the information he's looking for (or can, but very slowly), because his expectations are different. To increase user efficiency and effectiveness (usability), cultural differences need to be considered and incorporated into the design of HCI. The following quote about the need for localization elaborates on this idea:

"Localized  interfaces  are  supported  by  the  idea  that  the  existence    of    different    cultural    meanings    impedes    a    successful  standardization,  the  communication  between  a  sender  and  a  receiver  will  not  work  smoothly,  or  will  be  affected  negatively  when  they  belong  to  different  cultures,  as  they  rely  on  different  sets  of  values  and  meanings;  and  by  the  perception  of  products,  UI,  websites  forms  part  of  and  is  influenced  by  a  network  of  socio-cultural  variables." 

- Isabela Gasparini, "Vive la différence! : a survey of cultural-aware issues in HCI"

"The   design   of   the   user   interface   can   be   a   matter   of   preference  that  varies  from  person  to  person,  however,  we  can  find  common  preferences  that  are  deeply  rooted  in  culture,  and  research  in  this  direction  shows  that  people  considered  to  belong  the  same  cultural  group  also  perceive  and  process  information  in  similar  ways."- Isabela Gasparini, "Vive la différence! : a survey of cultural-aware issues in HCI"

It's easy to downplay the need for UI adaptation with reference to personal preference, but it becomes critical when designing for a particular culture/market, especially an unfamiliar one.  

"Although each culture has its own symbols and patterns of action, not all differences are significant [for UI design]." – Emilie Gould, “Synthesizing the Literature on Cultural Values”

It's true that not everything is important for UI design, and authenticity shouldn't be prioritized over usability. Only certain cultural values may be relevant and worth of UI adaptation. 

"We contribute to the digital divide when we have unrealistic and uncritical expectations that everyone who uses a computer must be much like us. Unfortunately, when they’re not, their reactions can become overly negative. In general, bad experiences diminish willingness to try new software." – Emilie Gould, “Synthesizing the Literature on Cultural Values”

I like this quote because it summarizes the worst assumption a UX specialist can make - believe that a product will work for any audience, based on personal belief or local testing. 

"'Meeting' new software (or a new website) invokes the same process of prediction, attribution, and uncertainty reduction that people use when meeting a stranger." – Emilie Gould, “Synthesizing the Literature on Cultural Values”

This is very true: when you start using a new product, you want it to be "friendly" and "speak your language", so you are motivated to continue your relationship with it.

Explorations

After reading “Synthesizing the Literature on Cultural Values”, which provided some culture application examples, I felt motivated to check out the Internet to find other examples of adaptation and stumbled upon this blog. The author describes different applications of cultural characteristics for different markets, highlighting her own UI design experience, covering the Dutch pragmatism, the German precision, and other cultural differences. She also provides some helpful tips that come out directly from her work.

Another blog I found has an opposing point of view. The author claims that culture does not matter much for industrial and mass-production design. His main example are cell phones that operate on the same platforms (iOS and Android) all across the globe, which look the same and provide the same options (just in different language). The same holds true for the design of appliances - kettles, toasters, rice cookers, etc. - which look and operate the same way in different countries. He claims that this standardization is very important for bringing the world together but at the same time it may diminish the richness of cultural diversity. 

I agree that appliances and other physical objects should look and work similarly because of the design affordances that allow any user and any traveler from a foreign country to be able to use them, but I don't think UI in website design should be homogenized across countries. They ways in which people read, perceive, and accept information are very different, as we have already learnt, and that can affect usability and trust (as in the “Synthesizing the Literature on Cultural Values” reading, people using new technologies is comparable to them meeting new people - if trust and ease of communication is not established during the first "meeting", the user will not feel motivated to continue the relationship with the product). 

Sketches

Exercises

1. 

The cultural comparison is based on two websites - Peking University and the University of Washington. The analysis has revealed that some characteristics match up with what is expected for these two cultural dimensions (power distance and individualism/collectivism), with minor inconsistencies. For example, information density is supposed to be high for low Power Distance and low for high Power Distance (per Gasparini, 2011), but the websites show the opposite trend.

2. Dimensions for a health-care website for immigrant communities (a set of questions for research with proposed users)

1) Power-Distance 

• Do patients want to be provided with different prescription options or should only one be picked by the doctor?
• Can patients choose their doctor? Or should they be assigned to one?
• Can patients can contact their doctors outside of work hours/distantly or can that be done only in-person?
• Do patients need to have a two-way communication with their doctor?

2) Long-Term Orientation

• How important is innovation to patients?
• How much do patients value traditional medicine?
• How important is a doctor's experience (number of years practicing) to patients?
• What do patients value more when selecting a doctor? Word of mouth or statements of achievement?

3) Individualism vs. Collectivism

• Will patients be coming to appointments alone or with their families?
• Do doctors work alone or in collaboration with other doctors/nurses?
• Do patients want to know about their doctors' outside interests, not related to work?
• How important for patients is their doctor's involvement into the life of the community?
• If an online account needs to be created, should it be created as one for the whole family, or separately for every individual in the household?
• At what age does a child become legally treated as an individual?
• What does a family and family plan/treatment mean to the patient? How big is the concept of "family" (immediate, distant, how many generations, etc.)

4) Uncertainty Avoidance

• Do patients need to know how long their appointments are going to last?
• Do patients need to have their doctor's contact information?
• Do patients need to know what the doctor's/clinic's hours are?
• Do patients want to know about all the side-effects of a prescription drug?
• Should patients be educated/helped with web navigation? 
• Should patients have an easy access to their account information and be able to change it if necessary?
• Should patients be presented with appointment/treatment costs prior to their visits?

Personal/Professional Inspirations

The readings have made me realize that besides the language and cultural dimension differences described by Hofstede and other researchers, there are more differences between nations - spatial, temporal, and contextual. The differences can't be gathered from the surface, and one really needs to dig deep, immerse oneself into the culture (or its research) to be able to put oneself into a foreigner's shoes. I love studying languages, and that's true that some aspects of a culture can be understood through the language lens (people's way of giving and getting directions, understanding and measuring time, etc.), so I'd like to start reading more about various languages. 

I also really liked reading that blog post with the international UI examples, so I figured that the best way to learn how to design for different cultures may be to learn from other researchers and designers' successful experiences - how they handled their failures, conducted additional testing, or took opportunities to redesign for better understanding. In my career, I will seek out opportunities to chat with my co-workers about their multicultural experiences in research and design. I'm sure they will be able to give helpful tips and tell insightful stories. 

29. PROCESS BOOK // Week 2

1. Favorite Quotes

"[Culture] It's something that's being created and re-created by people all the time—not just by certain people, but by everyone as they shape their own daily life." - W. Quesenbery and D. Szuc, Global UX: Design and Research in a Connected World, Chapter 3

This quote says that culture is fluid, it's constantly changing, which I have personally experienced when I moved from my home country and came back just a few years later - things were different. 

"Cultural differences that are particularly relevant in many UX projects may also be based on differences in the adoption of technology." - W. Quesenbery and D. Szuc, Global UX: Design and Research in a Connected World, Chapter 3

We often think about culture as it is manifested in national traditions and customs, but cultural differences do also reside between generations within the same nation. It is particularly important when designing technology and thinking about its intended demographic (and their technical background). 

"One of the things I learned early in my career is be sensitive to the differences that make a difference."  - W. Quesenbery and D. Szuc, Global UX: Design and Research in a Connected World, Chapter 3

There could be many cultural differences between two countries/markets, but it's important to focus on those that would be important for your particular product or service. Other details may be interesting, but completely irrelevant. I have learnt this by working on international product adaptation. 

"Our  ability  to  succeed  at  what  we  do  is  powerfully  bound  up  with  where  we re from,  and  being  a good  pilot  and  coming from  a high-power  distance  culture  is  a  dif­ficult  mix." - Gladwell, "The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes".

As we already learnt, collaboration and cooperation are key to survival and success. And the power distance measurement becomes really important here, because it defines how collaboration and cooperation happens. This is crucial in critical situations like aircraft emergencies.

2. Explorations

The previous quote made me wonder if there are any other fields where a high-power distance culture could play a deadly role, so I found this article. It provides an example from the medical field in the US, where the relationship between the physician and the nurses, as well as the patient, still represents some degree of high-power distance, which can let errors slip through and lead to undesired consequences. There has been some progress made, as the author claims, "Luckily, medicine has begun transitioning from a high to low power distance environment, but we still have a long way to go. We have begun to shed titles between co-workers. We are encouraging all members of the healthcare team to share ideas and strategies with their colleagues. Nurses and allied healthcare workers are encouraged and empowered to challenge physicians if they notice errors or have concerns about the prescribed treatment plan. Physicians have begun to not only accept but to appreciate suggestions from their co-workers."

I was very interested in digging deeper into what power distance meant and all its manifestations. I checked for videos on YouTube and found this one that has Geert Hofstede explaining the nuances himself. He claims that while there is a shift of the younger generations toward low-power distance, "the position of the countries relative to each other has remained the same...so the scores don't change." While I agree that culture changes very slowly, I wonder what happens in case of major migrations. Europe lately has become the cradle of the refugee movement, which has definitely impacted the politics and religious composition. This National Geographic article describes the high (although rewarding) stakes of the refugee experiment in Germany that has led to the national "cultural panic."

3. Sketches

 

Our team's version of a cultural model

4. Personal Professional Inspirations

These week's readings have been very insightful, especially the one that put everything in real terms in the ethnic theory of plane crashes. Coming from a high-power distance country I notice patterns in my behavior (talking to higher management and professors) that were shaped by my home country. Living here in the US and knowing the importance of cooperation for success, I will try to adjust my thinking and actions, especially in situations where error-avoidance is crucial. I'm not sure how hard or easy it is going to be, but it will definitely require effort to change my learned patterns. 

I also like the idea of being immersed in a foreign culture by observation and following local customs. Luckily, you don't have to travel far to do so. I have quite a few international friends that I would like to get together with more often, to learn their culture by being a part of it - going out with them, trying their cuisines, observing their religious and national customs. 

28. PROCESS BOOK // Week 1

🛈 This 10-week process book is going to include my weekly reflections to the readings and discussions in the international communication and UX class I'm taking this term. Since this blog is about culture, I figured it would serve as a great medium for this purpose. 

1. Time Visualization

Different individuals view the concept of time differently, depending on their cultural background and personal philosophy. For this in-class exercise, I paired up with my classmate to graphically show what we imagine time is.

We both agreed to show it as a timeline. I put a human in the center, facing the future on the right. I then added a cloud above him - these are his thoughts. He can think about his past event, including his early childhood memories. But the thoughts about the future cannot jump that far as he is able to imagine/plan for only his near future.

I read this article a couple years ago, and it reminded me of our discussion about time representation. Different cultures not only view time differently, but they also treat other people's time differently. 

2. Favorite Quotes

"The gossip theory might sound like a joke, but numerous studies support it. Even today the vast majority of human communication -whether in the form of emails, phone calls or newspaper columns -is gossip." - Y.N. Harari, Sapiens. A Brief History of Humankind.

This quote was an insight to me, a revelation, but it totally makes sense. If you analyze all human communication - it's all about discussing what others do or what they did. People love storytelling, and it goes far beyond the media!

"Ever since the Cognitive Revolution, Sapiens have thus been living in a  dual reality. On the one hand, the objective reality of rivers, trees and lions; and on the other hand, the imagined reality of gods, nations and corporations." - Y.N. Harari, Sapiens. A Brief History of Humankind.

I like this quote because it states the fact about the duality of our world. There is something real and something intangible, imagined that we believe in -- religions, brands, traditions, politics, beauty ideals, common sense -- and that in my opinion has a much greater effect on the formation of an individual as a social being. That's where culture resides in - the imagined reality. 

"To create experiences that work for many places and cultures, companies and their UX teams have to recognize underlying similarities as well as differences, whether this is similarities in the structure of a task or human truths that relate to their own product." - W. Quesenbery and D. Szuc, Global UX: Design and Research in a Connected World

I like that this statement encompasses both - the need to research user actions (how international users use a product differently) and also the need to consider their motivations, thoughts, potential taboos, etc, which definitely influence their perceptions of a product and the related needs they have.

3. Explorations

In the Sapiens book (Chapter 2), Harari compares humans to other animals, making a point that while they still have the ability to communicate with each other, the human language is superior because we can communicate in much more detail. This was key to our cooperation and survival, and that's what makes us "sapiens". 

This reminded me about human-animal comparisons from one of the books about curiosity (I'm not sure which one it was, as I read a lot of books about curiosity). In that book, the author claimed that what makes us different from monkeys (and chimpanzees specifically, as they are our closest relatives) is our ability to ask questions due to our innate curiosity. This very ability has led us throughout the centuries to innovation. That's how major technology that has shaped our world got invented (and technology surely influences culture) and we've become the society we are today.

I found this Medium article that discusses this phenomenon in similar terms: "Apes don’t ask questions because they can’t form assumptions about the thoughts and perspectives of others." She describes it as the theory of mind (the ability to think and believe in something, but also understand  that others have thoughts and beliefs that may be different from our own) - the ability that only humans have. To build a strong society, one needs to know how to cooperate, just as Harari suggests, but if you aren't capable of understanding another point of view, you can't. The Medium article author states, "We ask questions because we assume someone - someone outside of our own mind - could have the answers. Or at least that they'll be able to help us figure it out."

4. Sketches

5. Personal/Professional Inspirations

The idea of thinking both globally and locally is great because it lets designers and researchers adapt a product for universal use without disregarding local cultural differences and in many cases adapting it for those very specific differences. I'm going to try and do that in my work -  look for similarities and differences between cultures (the Internet offers great resources to study cultures deeply even remotely). 

27. Typography

I've always loved typography. Reading books and magazines, I often find myself much more drawn to the design and font choices rather than to the actual content. I'm a visual person, so whenever I see something nicely designed, I will be more likely to read it, and vice versa. No matter how great a story is, poor design makes it less enjoyable. Sadly, I'm not a graphic designer. I can tell if something looks esthetically 'right', but it's always been difficult for me to design something from scratch. So this time I decided to challenge myself and take a typography workshop with Steven Asbury from Asbury Design. In just one weekend, I learned so much about the history of various typefaces and the basic rules of typography. Practice was the most engaging part though! Here are my two little projects I designed in the course of the worskshop:

For this first exercise, we needed to pick our favorite quote and design it using a combination of two typefaces.

And for the second one, each of us was given a certain typeface, and we had to research its history and then design a story about it, using just that typeface, of course. Mine was Bodoni, and considering its Italian ancestry, I went for a mafia-style poster.

Maybe these don't look super professional, but I'm excited to practice more in the near future. I love the process, and that's what's most important, right?

26. Eulogy

DISCLAIMER: This fictitious eulogy for Forever 21 is based on my personal experience with the brand. No offense intended.

Eulogy

The dark time has come – Forever 21 is gone now. It just passed away, but it will always stay in our hearts. We will always remember how great it was. Whenever you walked into the store, it always looked so polished and organized. Just a few rows with hangers – that’s all you needed to experience its magnitude. There were never any lines at Forever 21. Of course, not many people could afford such deluxe shopping, but the few that could surely enjoyed its unhampered and personalized atmosphere. And everything was so perfectly ironed, neat, and clean – not even a spot, not a tiny stain on its luxurious fabrics! In fact, Forever 21’s quality management was so unprecedented that they would always carefully inspect every single item to make sure that no damaged merchandise was on display. 

Talking about quality, even Chanel faded in comparison. No designer in the world used rarer and more expensive materials. And with what precision and dedication all its clothing articles were handcrafted! You could get only unique, one-of-a-kind sweatshop-free items at Forever 21, and all of them would fit like a glove. The highest-paid Chinese fashion designers worked on them for months, hand sewing them using golden threads and embroidering exquisite ornaments onto their surface. No one in the world will ever be able to recreate these articles. Their secret died with Forever 21.

There should be something special said about the customer service that Forever 21 provided. All customers were treated like gods – sales representatives would always run around them, catering to their every need. And whenever anyone had a problem or had to return something, they would always make a sincere apology and go out of their way to return the full amount paid in cash, even for jewelry and sale items. On top of that, they would even add a coupon to make the customer happy. No other living brand in the world has ever treated its customers better than Forever 21 did.

Of course, it will be hard for all of us to live in this world knowing that Forever 21 is not here any longer. It was a terrible, untimely death, but we will never forget how much value Forever 21 had brought into our lives. It will stay in our hearts forever. Amen.

25. Merry Baskin

Image via

Merry Baskin, who can be considered one of the best account planners in the world, visited our university this week. I was lucky enough to go to both of her presentations and attend a discussion-based meeting with her. Merry has extensive experience working in the advertising industry, and her advice to us - young communications professionals and aspiring account planners - is more than valuable, especially on the threshold of graduation.

According to Merry, the prototype of a great strategist is Mr. Nosey - a fictitious character, who is always snooping around in other people's lives. As a planner, you have to be endlessly curious, maybe to the point where other people think you're weird. Going shopping? Don't forget to check out other people's shopping carts and follow them around, analyzing their shopping and buying preferences. Insights are everywhere, you just have to look for them.

Besides being curious, a good planner must have great listening skills, and empathy lies at their core. You have to be able be "put yourself in your consumer's shoes." And then walk in them. Only this way you can truly understand this person's feelings and experiences, which is the foundation for any great strategy. In fact, a good planner should know (despite what the client may say) that brands belong to consumers, not brand owners, so understanding your consumer is key here.

Most strategies can be divided into two categories: rational and emotional. It would be intuitive to say that a strategy must be rational, but it turns out that those advertising campaigns that utilize emotional strategies are more successful on average. People are highly emotional and most of the time irrational in their actions. Think about this: when shopping, you fall in love with a beautiful pair of shoes. Do you weigh all the pros and cons BEFORE you buy it or do you post-rationalize your purchase AFTER you buy it? Most people do the second, which proves that we are more emotional than rational, and as strategists, we should be aware of that. "It's all about an emotional response," as Merry puts it.

Image via

As the owner of Baskin Shark, a brand planning and training consultancy, Merry claims that "like a shark, brands must move forward or die." As we know, sharks need to keep moving to be able to breathe. Similarly, brands need to be constantly evolving to keep up with the changing world and people's attitudes. That's why staying on top of culture and current trends is so important for an account planner.

One more interesting thing that Merry suggested everyone should do is take the Myers-Briggs personality test, like this one here. Self-awareness is very important in this business (actually, in any). The better you understand yourself, the better you know how to build stronger relationships with people, the better you know how to deal with problems. According to the test, I am the ISTJ type (Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, Judging), aka "the duty fulfiller" or "the inspector." Can't but agree with that. While I'm figuring out my strengths and weaknesses, take this test to learn more about yourself! (You can read about each personality type here and here).

24. NYC 2014 Overview

May 5 - May 10 was the most exciting, adventurous, and productive time of my life. I went to New York with a group of other students from the University of Oregon to explore famous advertising agencies and learn from the most talented people in the industry. I visited seven amazing agencies and gained a lot from this experience. I will talk more about that in my future posts (hopefully starting this weekend), but here's a brief overview for now: