1. CULTURE + DESIGN
Interactions 12
#cultureUX

2. About Me
Erik Dahl
@eadahl
#cultureUX

3. About this talk
4 VIGNETTES DEFINING 3 BUILDING BLOCKS
& CAVEATS CULTURE OF CULTURE IMPLICATIONS

4. Cultural Fit

9. “The Phone Stack” Game

10. CULTURAL
Orientation
Methodology

11. THE REAL JOURNEY OF
DISCOVER CONSISTS NOT IN
SEEING NEW LANDSCAPES BUT
IN HAVING NEW EYES.
- MARCEL PROUST

12. YES... AND...
CULTURE
Psychology
Physiology
Emotions
Context
Activities
Motivations
Goals

13. YES... AND...

14. I’m NOT talking about creating
culture
within your organization

15. I’m NOT talking about
cross-cultural design

16. Cultural Foil

17. we are all members of
MANY
CULTURES

18. Okay, great.
So, what is culture about?
HOW DO WE DEFINE IT?

19. Culture is:
Behavior - what people do
Knowledge - what people know
Artifacts - things people make and use.
- James Spradley

20. Culture is simply what gives meaning to
actions, which it does by providing a
sense of coherence or patterning and
predictability. It provides the lens through
which one interprets events, scenes, and
actions.
- Robert Gordon

21. The concept of culture I espouse...is
essentially a semiotic one. Believing with Max
Weber, that man is an animal suspended in
webs of significance he himself has spun, I
take culture to be those webs, and analysis of
it to be therefore not an experimental science
in search of law but an interpretive one in
search of meaning.
- Clifford Geertz

22. Culture is a system of shared meanings
that is based on a signifying order, a
complex system of different types of signs
that cohere in predictable ways into
patterns or representation which
individuals and groups can utilize to make
or exchange messages.
- Marcel Danesi

23. these definitions point to
a GENERATIVE concept of culture
NOT
a TAXONOMIC concept of culture

24. our designs become
sites of
CULTURAL PRODUCTION

25. ...it is in its transparency
Joe Ballay onfunction
that it fulfills its design

26. 3 building blocks
of CULTURE

27. building block #1
PATTERNS

28. An underlying shared system of
information and knowledge that
is manifest through patterns of
norms, behaviors and signifiers.

31. patterns help us
SEE culture

32. patterns are the
SYNTAX of culture

33. patterns provide the
MATERIAL of culture

34. How do we suss out?
PATTERNS

35. be OPEN to the WORLD.
NOTICE
Let go of your ASSUMPTIONS.

36. Sweatener, not Cleaner

37. Farmhouse, not Urban

38. 3 building blocks of culture
Patterns --- ---
See --- ---
Syntax --- ---
Material --- ---
Notice --- ---
Let go of --- ---
Assumptions

39. building block #2
STORIES

40. Clifford Geertz
Culture is simply the ensemble of
stories we tell ourselves about ourselves.

41. Harry Crews

42. Truth of the matter was, stories was everything and
everything was stories. Everybody told stories. It was
a way of saying who they were in the world. It was
their understanding of themselves. It was letting
themselves know how they believed the world worked;
the right way and the way that was not so right.

44. stories help us
UNDERSTAND culture

45. stories are the
SEMANTICS of culture

46. stories provide an
EMIC perspective of culture

47. How do we suss out?
STORIES

48. be OPEN to the PEOPLE.
EMPATHIZE
Build new ASSUMPTIONS.

49. Creativity
Passion
Authenticity
Community
Engaged
Personal Expression

50. A “Value-based Syllogism”
define general my expression of
< value > < value >
< brand x >
(-) (+)
neg. brand pos. brand
expression expression

51. “It used to be that you got ahead by working
harder, but now it’s about working smarter.”

52. 3 building blocks of culture
Patterns Stories ---
See Understand ---
Syntax Semantics ---
Material Emic ---
Notice Empathize ---
Let go of Build new ---
Assumptions Assumptions

53. building block #3
INTERPRETATION

54. Clifford Geertz
Deep knowledge is the ability to make
complex connections to central concpets.

55. We can’t just give people
what they want.

56. Kim Philby
“I learned more at cocktail parties
than by photographing documents...”

57. interpretations help us
KNOW culture

58. interpretations are the
PRAGMATICS of culture

59. interpretations provides an
ETIC perspective of culture

60. How do we suss out?
INTERPRETATION

61. be OPEN to the OURSELVES.
MODEL
Challenge your ASSUMPTIONS.

62. Enculturation

63. Openings Closings
It’s not always about what
you notice on the clock.

64. Cultural Function

65. Cultural Form

66. 3 building blocks of culture
Patterns Stories Interpretations
See Understand Know
Syntax Semantics Pragmatics
Material Emic Etic
Notice Empathize Model
Let go of Build new Challenge
Assumptions Assumptions Assumptions

67. CULTURE + DESIGN
IMPLICATIONS

68. MEANING
ULTIMATELY, CULTURE IS ALL ABOUT

69. ASSUMPTIONS
Acknowledge...
Let go of...
Build...
Challenge...

70. NEW EYES
Cultural understanding provides a lens
or orientation towards the world and
our everyday lives.

71. TRICKSTER
Designer as...

72. Summary
4 VIGNETTES DEFINING 3 BUILDING BLOCKS
& CAVEATS CULTURE OF CULTURE IMPLICATIONS

73. CULTURE + DESIGN
thanks
@eadahl erik@goinvo.com