The role of culture in Interaction design and UCD

Culture affects how things are seen and perceived. To some extent it is also a determinant of what is considered good or bad. Each institution, organization or group creates its own culture by sharing the same habits, goals and attitudes. Without a doubt culture should be considered when designing interactive application, software or system(1). The product should be designed in way that it does not violate any of the values of target customers. Therefore, it can be claimed that culture is equally important than customer’s needs when designing new product. What’s more, culture influences the needs of a customer. If a product is designed according to customer’s needs but it does not fit to the culture and environment in which customer exists, it will not be fully successful. This way customer can be forced to abandon old habits and change attitudes, therefore, create new culture.

With the rapid growth of technology, it is also observable that some cultures are created because of interaction and user centered design. Excellent examples are social networking services. In the past, the websites were technical and did not allow much interaction. Right now, almost anyone can create an account within a few minutes on portals such Facebook or Myspace. These two services have significantly influenced the social networking on the Internet. They also influence the behavior of people in real life. For instance, at any of the student party people snap photos just to upload them later on to their Facebook accounts. All these people created a new culture (or subculture) that previously could not be observed.
To sum up, it is safe to claim that the role of culture in Interaction design and UCD is significant. Culture influences the design and design influences culture. Furthermore, Interaction and user center design can create new cultures.

References:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture

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