CULTURE MATTERS Part 1: An Introduction
An average of 80 apps are downloaded on a person’s cell phone all over the world and at least 30 are used monthly. As the creation of applications increases, designers are required to be advanced in their technical skills. Consumers now constantly carry their digital devices such as mobile phones, laptops, and tablets.
This changed the way designers advertise, market, and communicate.
Product design in applications, known as UI/UX, has established its design medium as a visual layout of how a particular application will function for users to understand and use easily. It is the new rise of design amongst the current generation of designers.
User behaviors from country to country are different worldwide. People have different cultural backgrounds, values, and beliefs that change the way we think, act, and speak. Culture encompasses a variety of aspects, such as food, language, clothing, music, rituals, norms, and religions. In other words, culture is tied to humanity’s origins, and software is evolving from those origins.
There are numerous apps and websites that provide similar services in different countries.
Yet, why isn’t there just one app for mobility, e-commerce, or entertainment throughout the world?
Language translation isn’t the only barrier in reaching an overseas market. Each country has its own resources and most importantly, the local people know their own market the best. It is evident that culture plays a critical part in the success of apps.
Snapchat, an app created in the US, serves as a platform with an AR lens feature that allows users to overlay their faces with various filters. This innovative product attempted to expand its market to East Asian countries, including South Korea. However, while Snapchat had gained interest in Korea, it was not favored as much as the Korean version of Snapchat called SNOW.
Snapchat failed to understand the Korean market. SNOW offered “beauty and makeup features to overlay onto existing photos or in real-time through the camera. Users are allowed to be creative while also bringing that cute factor that Koreans love.” (John, “SNOW — The Best Beauty and Makeup Camera App in Korea”)
It is important for a digital product to understand the overseas market in order to crossover, especially how culture plays a part in reaching its local markets. Therefore, foreign brands need to understand the local culture in order to penetrate into that demographic.
As an offspring of Korean and Japanese parents, who lived in Seoul, New York and LA, as well as a graduate in Design at the University of Southern California, I am fascinated by the metamorphosis in design and technology, as well as the differences in user values in UI/UX between different cultures. With my experience, observations and background, I focus and compare Korea and the United States in this five part series of CULTURE MATTERS.
Over the years, Korean products have become more accessible in the US. Through Korean innovations in technology, music, and platforms, many Korean products, such as those made by Hyundai, Samsung and LG have successfully expanded their market globally. They have become household brands in America, which generated consumers’ interest and acceptance of Korean culture, whether they are aware of this or not.
How does culture influence designers to create products?
“Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiment in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, on the other, as conditional elements of future action.”
(Clyde Kluckhohm, “Culture: A critical review of concepts and definitions”)
CULTURE MATTERS will explore the above question by examining the importance of culture in product design through comparisons between South Korea and the United States. I will introduce the cultural ideals and influences from Korean and US history; explain how Korea’s collectivistic culture and America’s individualistic culture affect design decisions in products; show how its products are marketed globally through language and localization.
I want to expand people’s knowledge by delving into the two Eastern and Western cultures and connect with others with diverse cultural backgrounds. By being part of this multicultural movement, we can appreciate and be sensitive towards various cultures. And through these understandings, bring harmony in our designs, whether that’s on a digital platform or elsewhere.
