The design teams that thrive over the next years will be the ones that can demonstrate impact using truly human-centered delivery approaches.
I joined Ryan Koch on the Civic Tech Chat in May. We talked about shifts in the direction of the design and research practice, innovative practices to build capacity and leadership within it, and its future as new tools like artificial intelligence emerge and become part of it.
Civic Tech Chat is a podcast covering the space where technology and the public interest meet. They explore how technologists, policymakers, and communities are reshaping the way public services are designed, delivered, and experienced.
Listen here: https://civictech.chat/episodes/evolution-of-design-and-research-in-civic-tech
I recently came on the work of Rafaël Rozendaal, a Dutch-Brazilian visual artist in New York. Its impossible to really explain his work, so just go check it out. It's a collection of animations and visual experiments with canvas, so they are best viewed on a desktop.
https://www.newrafael.com/internet
I spoke with the Communication Arts team last year, and shared some reflections on the effects that designers’ UX and branding choices can have on users in different cultures.
Originally published at www.editorx.com on August 24, 2020. You can read a copy here.
The modern web has made it easier than ever before to expand to new markets. Just translating a website or app into different languages in the hope it’ll attract new users in their masses, however, isn’t enough. Neglecting cultural differences can lead to confusion, frustration, and even offence. As a result, it’s crucial to acknowledge the unique cultural characteristics and business practices of all your users.
There are lots of examples. Colors have different connotations across cultures. If you’re in Japan and look at a map of the world, Japan is featured in the center, not over on the right like in American maps. Websites, meanwhile, are a lot busier and information-dense in some cultures, while in others, the design tends to be more minimalist with fewer calls-to-action. Some societies are individualistic, where users prefer messages and images of independence and choice. Others might be collectivist societies, where users prefer the knowledge of the group and the wisdom of the crowd.
Localization is therefore a key factor in connecting with international audiences. In fact, the way you design across cultures can make or break a product. It’s a topic designer and illustrator Senongo Akpem knows a thing or two about. He grew up in Nigeria, then spent a decade in Japan, and now calls New York home, bringing a global perspective to his client and personal work.
For years, he has been passionate about implementing diverse, inclusive design strategies into his practice, and about the role culture plays in creating a richer experience for everyone on the web — regardless of location, language, or identity. Senongo has recently distilled his thoughts, research, and the lessons he learned into a book called Cross-Cultural Design, published by A Book Apart, an essential read for anyone who wants to build better websites for people all over the world and from different cultures.
We sat down with him to discuss the need to design with cultural sensitivity in mind and how to do so effectively.
Read moreI was on Tentative, a podcast about digital product design, to talk about design in civic-tech, ways to include cross-cultural design thinking into short engagements, staying dedicated to long-term projects, and memories of Dreamweaver. Tentative is hosted by thoughtbot's Chief Design Officer Kyle Fiedler & Boston Design Director Jaclyn Perrone.
I'll post the transcript when it is ready.
I spoke with Oliver Lindberg on the Shopify Partners blog about keeping people who speak English as a second language in mind when you structure your content for localization.
With more people than ever shopping online from all over the world, it’s essential to think about internationalization (i18n) and localization (l10n). If you don’t, your clients’ apps or websites may be received poorly by international audiences, and they could lose out on additional customers, users, and revenue. In today’s article, we talk to designers and developers about how to become an expert in these areas.
The web has become truly global, which means your clients can now sell their products to millions of people around the world. Technology has made it relatively easy to expand to new markets, and some are growing at a staggering pace. It’s an opportunity too good to miss. No wonder we identified internationalization as an essential trend for any ecommerce growth strategy.
About half of the world’s population may be online now, but only about 25 percent of web users are English speakers, and you need to adapt your clients’ sites to the rest. Translating a website or app, or shifting an English-only old code base to support multiple languages, comes with many challenges. But that’s not all: you also need to take cultural differences into account, which a lot of brands fail to do.
In this article, we’ll cover both internationalization (i18n)—the process of designing an app or site so that it can be adapted to various languages and regions without engineering changes—as well as localization (l10n)—the process of adapting an internationalized app or site for a specific region or language by translating text and adding locale-specific components. We’ll also talk to designers and developers to find out what kind of UX best practices and tools they use to create digital products for international users.
Read moreI spoke to Gene Shannon on the the Shopify UX team earlier this month about the principles of cross-cultural design, along with a few lessons and best practices I've picked up.
What are some misconceptions that people have about cross-cultural design?
The first thing that people struggle with is why cross-cultural design is important in the first place. I think that there can be — especially in the West, but in any place — a sense of cultural superiority. People think “The way that we do it is objectively better, so why should we then make ‘concessions’ to others?” That can be very dangerous thinking, but that’s the first hurdle that a lot of people need to jump over. Speaking as a Nigerian, many Nigerians might say, “Our way of doing X is better. So why should we make concessions?” That attitude is common, regardless of the country or part of the world.
The second misconception is that all you need to do is switch some language or just translate your web pages and you’ll be okay. Of course that never does the job, since localization is a much more expensive process than people would expect.
Read more
I spoke with Chris Coyier and Dave Rupert on the Shop Talk Show, a podcast about building websites. The conversation went all over, but focused mainly on my new book, Cross-Cultural Design, and how building websites for people all over the world and from different cultures can be done better.
In March, I wrote about four ways to get started with cross-cultural design for the Dribbble blog. Here's the intro:
The internet is connecting more people in more places than ever before—and yet many of us still start our design and illustration projects with wealthy, Western audiences in mind. However, our audiences bring a dazzling variety of languages, perspectives, and expectations with them. If we want to effectively design for these modern, multicultural audiences, we have to be willing to challenge our usual ways of gathering inspiration and conceptualizing our projects.
To effectively design for these modern, multicultural audiences, we have to be willing to challenge our usual ways of gathering inspiration & conceptualizing our projects.
You may have just started a web or illustration project that requires cultural knowledge or sensitivity. Perhaps your search for “cross-cultural design” brought up a bunch of information, but you want something put into use immediately. You don’t always need to do deep cultural dives, but you can center the needs of your audience by using a few straightforward techniques to help you get started.