Oftentimes, your most significant product design challenges stem not from technical details but from the way your product interacts with different communities. To be clear, product designers and other business decision-makers have long been cognisant of the importance of cross-cultural considerations. But as global trade deepens and cultures continue to develop, these challenges have only become more commonplace.
Whether one aims to offer a product with a global appeal or something that resonates strongly with a specific niche, the mastery of different cultural vernaculars will always play a significant, if not definitive, role in product design. Effectively adapting a design for a specific market will involve looking into the key aspects presented below. Before marketing your next offers in the Auckland Region, contact experts in product design Auckland businesses rely on.
1. Cultural and Language Literacy
True literacy involves more than mastery of a given language. Critically, it also requires an understanding of local idiomatic expressions and culture, an idea that is sometimes referred to as “cultural literacy.” Understanding this in-depth can often determine how well a product “talks” to your target market without further need for contextualisation, such as with labels or visualisations within product manuals.
Cross-cultural literacy can also determine how well a product is received in your target region. This extends beyond mere translation—product brand names, marketing materials, and documentation must also align with local expectations. This facilitates selling the product while also enhancing its functionality and making it more usable for the intended consumers.
2. Visual Symbolism
We can easily forget that symbols do not hold the same meaning across different cultures. For instance, the Anglo-American “OK” hand gesture can mean something quite rude in many continental European cultures. These sorts of distinctions can be much more subtle in physical product design but they are still apparent, especially when comparing particularly divergent cultures.
Even within a given culture, symbols also do not always maintain a static meaning. For example, while the swastika today has an unsavoury undercurrent in Western cultures, this was not always the case. In the early 20th century, the swastika still had benign connotations in the West, akin to other still-used symbols like stars and crescent moons.
In the same way, the way your product design within a market is perceived can change if the surrounding culture also changes. In Western countries, shaggy carpets were once considered the epitome of accessible luxury in both car and home interiors in the 1970s. However, by the 1990s, this type of furnishing had largely fallen out of favour, except as a retro-kitsch detail.
3. Colour Significance
While colour meanings are still an aspect of cultural literacy, they are especially important due to their being front and centre in both product designs and marketing materials. Colours hold distinct meanings in different cultures, making it imperative for product designers to research and choose hues wisely.
An understanding of colour significance isn’t just important when marketing to foreign markets either. Even within markets, colours can hold different meanings for different sets of people. Vintage avocado green and harvest gold appliances, for example, can evoke a positive sense of nostalgia and interest for some people and create the feeling of mild distaste for others.
4. UX/UI Preferences
Product layouts and features have to align with cultural expectations and technological habits prevalent in the target market. Cultures that prioritise speed and convenience may prefer a very different feature set from ones that emphasise precision. This is, perhaps, most evident in each culture’s preference or tolerance to different levels of information density.
High-end appliances designed for East Asian markets, for instance, tend to have more controls within immediate reach of the user. In contrast, a similar device specifically designed for a Western country may have the controls pared down or hidden behind a panel. Websites designed for East Asian and Western audiences also feature a similar dichotomy, with East Asian sites tending to be far more packed with details than similar Western examples.
Control layouts can also differ, often depending on the culture’s writing system. Cultures that use right-to-left writing systems like Arabic or Hebrew may have a very different idea of what an intuitive layout looks like. This is especially worth considering when designing applications for high-value Middle Eastern markets.
5. Region-Specific Localisation
Localisation goes beyond languages and idioms since it also involves tailoring the product to suit regional standards. Design leads should take care to customise key aspects such as date formats, measurement units, and all other culturally relevant content. This helps align offers with expected user experiences and demonstrates respect for the local culture.
6. Legal Frameworks
Product designers should be well-versed in the legal requirements of the countries they target. Traditionally, legal requirements mostly cover safety standards and the use of specific materials, but these have since expanded to include data protection regulations. Engaging with qualified local experts should help design leads account for any unique legal considerations that may impact the design, development, and marketing of the product.
Regardless of whether you’re targeting overseas markets or desire success closer to home, cross-cultural considerations must take centre stage in your product design strategies. Shedding your preconceptions of how others see things can open up a whole new world of insights that will not only aid your products’ success but also provide your business with a serious edge in a shrinking yet culturally nuanced world.
