Cultural Human Factors

Instructor

Judith Gregory

Understanding the needs of different cultures, populations, and countries is necessary in order to design for a global marketplace and for local communities that are increasingly connected by global networks and circulation of ideas, styles, habits and forms of knowledge. In order to learn from culturally-informed insights, it is necessary to conduct cross-cultural research prior to the design phase to uncover unarticulated needs and tacit knowledge that underlie and motivate varying patterns of behavior and values.

We will explore inter-related levels at which designers can explore the challenge of multi-cultural design in relation to people’s needs in diverse contexts: Internationalization; accommodating multiple languages; localization; and embracing user needs in the context of their cultural values. In addition, we will explore: multi-disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity in relation to the transdisciplinary character of design; and subcultures, hybrid identities, and global assemblages.

This course will focus on approaching multicultural design from each of these perspectives and how to go about developing frameworks for understanding various cultural contexts and emerging markets for design of products, services and infrastructures.

Format & Grading

The format of the course will vary. Class sessions will typically combine lectures, discussion of individual assignments, and in-class exercises. Certain sessions will be devoted to special workshops. Guest lectures and video presentations may be included as schedules permit.

Weekly assignments will be carried out individually, to explore understandings of cultural models for observational methods in real-world environments. Summaries of two course readings will be assigned to (self-selected) pairs of course participants, with the summaries posted as a collective resource on seeID. This course does not involve teamwork outside of in-class workshop exercises, and does not entail an extended project. In other words, the weekly assignments are discrete and self-contained, taking you through different ways of understanding culture in relation to objects of design.

Assignments are due by the beginning of class on the due date indicated in the “Assignments’ section of the course page.

Evaluation
Course evaluation will be determined based on participation in class, the quality of weekly assignments and summaries of readings, and a final exam, as follows:

40% Participation in class
60% Weekly assignments and summaries of readings