About Us
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Christine Wang
China Product Research Lead
Sigit Adinugroho
Senior Product Designer

Cultural context in human-
centered design
Christine Wang - China UX Research Lead
Sigit Adinugroho - Senior Product Designer

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We design for merchants
across the world.

Shopify UX
● A multidisciplinary and
diverse UX team of 450+
people
● Dedicated to empowering
commerce at a global scale
● Building products that help
people scale their businesses
● Given autonomy to solve
problems

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Contents
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Why cultural context matters
02 Four steps to design for
cultural context

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01
Why cultural context matters for human-
centered design

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Drivers
Needs
Goals
Behavior
Physical Environment
Social Environment
Culture & Society
Zoom In Zoom Out

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Cultural context
subconsciously influences
people’s decisions
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02
Four steps to design with
cultural context

Our framework
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ACKNOWLEDGE
Acknowledge
cultural differences
LEARN
Build cultural
context
IDEATE
Use cultural
context to inspire
innovative
solutions
PREPARE
Build a long-term
strategy
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4

Step 1:
ACKNOWLEDGE
Acknowledge
culture differences
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Challenge assumptions,
avoid generalization
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Where your
product comes from
Where/who you
design for
POINT A POINT B

Holiday homes in the western world — photos from Unsplash

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“Tidur lambak” culture in Southeast Asia (source)
Traveling with the whole “army” of family (source)

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A holiday apartment in Tokyo, Japan — photo from Airbnb

In Japan, “Order” icon
is misinterpreted. It’s
too abstract. Case
study: Shopify.
In other countries, calendars have holidays marked in different colors.
In middle-eastern countries, weekends fall on mid-week!

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Alleyways in Jakarta — photo from Whiteboard Journal

Step 2:
LEARN
Build cultural context
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Have a culture guide.
Treat your local
recruiting/research agencies
as your culture guides.
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Photos from Unsplash

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See things from others’
perspectives.
Go into people’s life context
to see things from their
perspectives.
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Make sense of design principles
through zooming out to
understand the physical, social
and cultural context.

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Japan China
Canada

Consider local laws and
regulations
Enabling Facebook marketing for China requires understanding local laws

Step 3:
IDEATE
Use the cultural context to
inspire innovative solutions
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From insights to
actions.
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Elevate observations to
insights to inspire design
opportunities
instead of generating
solutions directly from
observations.
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IDEO Innovation Journey

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Co-create with
people.
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Step 4:
PREPARE
Build a long-term strategy to
address cross-cultural
audiences
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Let local/regional teams
lead the way.

How we work with RnD
Project Team (regional)
Engineers
Product Manager
Data Scientists
Designer
Designer
UX Developer
UX Researcher
Content Strategist

Develop skills to
unlearn and relearn
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Make a culture “hat”:
habit of thinking about
different culture and
nuances.
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Our APAC Shopify team regularly shares snippets of UXRs to the larger team

“Surround yourself with (digital)
pieces of culture you’re
designing for.”
Senongo Akpem, author “Cross-Cultural Design”

You are what you consume.
Consume books or other media
that are more broad-ranging.
Try more diverse authors.
When we already can after the
pandemic, travel.

Build a constant connection
to your users.
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Document your learning
and share to the team.
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A playbook for localization for HomeAway

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03
Recap

Cultural context matters
because
● It defines how product is
perceived and used
● It sets user behaviors
● It will benefit you long-term
by being relevant to the
market
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Our framework
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ACKNOWLEDGE
Acknowledge
cultural differences
LEARN
Build cultural
context
IDEATE
Use cultural
context to inspire
innovative
solutions
PREPARE
Build a long-term
strategy
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4

Get connected
Blog:
ux.shopify.com
Careers:
shopify.com/careers
Newsletter signup:
https://site.email.shopify.com/ux-newsletter

Let’s
connect.
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Thanks!