Design for different cultures with Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory
This article is part of the weekly reflections for the class International UX and communication in my graduate program in HCDE at the University of Washington. Each week, we reflect on how understanding cultures help us design for global audiences.
Hofstede’s cultural dimensions
This week we went through Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory and how it helps to inform our design decisions for audiences from different cultures. We had fun coming up with ideas of assisting people in a particular country on how to keep safe during the coronavirus crisis.
Hofstede’s theory provides a framework to analyze a culture or compare multiple cultures from dimensions like power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long term orientation. On Hofstede Insights website, it’s very easy and straightforward to see the value of each cultural indicator for a country (or compare up to four countries).
My thoughts on Hofstede’s theory
In my opinion, the theory is very helpful when we are designing for audiences in a certain country that we don’t know much about. It provides a preliminary understanding of what to consider and what are some areas of potential opportunities. Based on that, we could generate hypotheses and research questions to move forward.
That said, it has some limitations too. First of all, boundaries of cultures are very subjective and hard to define with geographical lines. However, the theory views people in a country as a whole without considering subcultures and regional differences within a country. Also, culture changes over time. The changes are difficult to be identified from the framework. Most importantly, it’s dangerous to design for average because every individual is different. While Hofstede’s theory pictures a hypothetical image of what a person in a country is like. The question is, how many people in that country really fit the average? Therefore, it’s important to incorporating user research methods as well in order to emphasize individual diversity.
A brief look at Taiwanese culture
I found it very interesting to look at the drivers of Taiwanese culture relative to the US culture through the lens of the model. Here are some of my thoughts and interpretations.
1. Very low individualism
Taiwan, with a score of 17 is a collectivistic society. This is manifest in a close long-term commitment to the “member” group, be that a family, extended family or extended relationships.
In the US, people are usually encouraged to do what they think is right and care less about what others think. This enables a safe and open environment for people to learn and try new things, which is very helpful in terms of personal growth.
Whereas in Taiwan, it’s important to behave as a member of society, thinking about how the consequences of our behaviors might affect other people and how they would think about our decisions. Living in a collectivistic society could be stressful and exhausted sometimes.
Take myself as an example. Whenever my mom disagrees with something that I did, her reasoning always starts with, “it’s not just about you. You have to think about other people too”, followed by “how would other people think about what you just did?” and “what would people say about you?”. The conversation is never about the behavior itself but how it stands in the social context.
2. Masculinity or femininity?
Taiwan scores 45 on Masculinity and is thus considered a slightly Feminine society. In Feminine countries the focus is on “working in order to live”, people value equality, solidarity and quality in their working lives. Conflicts are resolved by compromise and negotiation. Incentives such as free time and flexibility are favored. Focus is on well-being, status is not shown.
While Taiwanese people do value the relationship between people and care for others a lot, I think the masculine side is pretty strong in the culture too. The society is driven by competition, achievement and success for sure. For example, children are always rewarded by high grades in exams or assignments instead of participation or effort. A person’s success is defined by their professional achievement and status instead of how well it matches with their passion.
I think this is an interesting balance between masculinity and collectivism. That is, even though people want to be the best, they are not encouraged to behave in an aggressive way in such a collectivistic culture. Standing out from the crowd is never a good thing. People tend to downplay their hard work to be modest and nice, therefore result in the femininity of the culture.
3. High uncertainty avoidance & femininity
Taiwan scores 69 on Uncertainty Avoidance and thus has a high preference for avoiding uncertainty. The country maintains rigid codes of belief and behavior and are intolerant of unorthodox behavior and ideas.
In Taiwanese culture, there’s a strong emotional need to follow rules and look for structures. The value system starts in school where there is always a right answer to a question. It’s not acceptable for teachers to say “I don’t know” to students. Open-ended discussions and debates are rarely encouraged.
That said, when it comes to people, rules could be broken. In my opinion, femininity is playing out with uncertainty avoidance here. When the relationship between people is involved in a conversation, people turn much more flexible and open to change. For example, it’s ok to bargain at markets. And it’s normal that sometimes police officers let people go with a warning.
4. Very high long-term orientation
Taiwan scores 93, making it a pragmatic, long-term orientation culture. Societies with this orientation show a strong propensity to save and invest, thriftiness, perseverance in achieving results and an overriding concern for respecting the demands of Virtue.
It’s true that Taiwanese culture stands at the long-term end of this dimension. Meanwhile, I am seeing differences between younger and elder generations. For instance, younger people at my age tend to spend money for pleasure without thinking much about retirement or financial planning. On the other hand, my parents went through the years of rapid industrialization and economic growth, which is often referred to as ‘Taiwan Economic Miracle’. They started from scratch and worked very very hard to achieve what they have today. Therefore, young people traveling frequently and buying new clothes every season is considered as very immature by them. Looking at the long term and preparing for the future is deeply rooted in their minds.
Thanks for reading. Happy researching!
