Research on Cross-Cultural Product and Service Design Dynamics in a Global Perspective

With the accelerated development of the global economic pattern, the exchanges between countries gradually form a diversified trend, transnational trade such as the emergence of a spring, in this economic context, cultural exchanges between countries also presents a prosperous scene, but cultural diversity will inevitably bring cross-cultural contradictions and conflicts.

From the perspective of design thinking to look at cross-cultural issues, design products as an important carrier of trade exchanges, the diversity of cultures makes the product creation of a constant source of inspiration. Compared with the distinctive traditional art of each country, cross-cultural integration is more capable of stimulating the acceptance of local culture to foreign propaganda, thus opening the door to the country and benignly promoting the world’s cultural exchanges. Some scholars divide the process of cross-cultural design into three stages, i.e. quotation, simulation and transformation. Especially in the field of brand visual design, the cultural packaging of a product is undoubtedly the first element of product sales. Through the external extraction of cultural factors, such as patterns, colours, ways of use and other information presented to visual elements to show the national culture. It can make it have the significance of symbolic communication and stimulate consumers’ desire to buy.

In terms of product design, some scholars have proposed design techniques for product imagery. Different cultures have different cultural backgrounds, which can express different cultural imagery. Different cultures have different cultural backgrounds, which can express different cultural imagery. By exploring the imagery behind a particular culture, the modelling design of products can be generated based on this approach. This is especially represented by handmade artefacts. Such as porcelain, gold and silverware and other daily necessities, they are closely related to human life, and most of them have played a role in history as a collection of religious beliefs, life concepts and philosophical ideas. We can see from their shapes, colours and materials the level and state of people’s lives at that time. This can also be applied to today’s design world, fusing cultures and adding modern colours to traditional shapes to cater for modern cross-cultural design.

In terms of service design, we can start with the local culture of the service object and conduct cultural research on the user group. According to their growing environment and living habits, we should analyse their functional needs, psychological needs, spatial perception and other multi-dimensional experiences. We can collaborate with multiple stakeholders, such as operators and customers, to achieve systematic innovation in service provision, service processes and service contacts, and to improve the comfort of service design.

In addition, in terms of design talent cultivation, with the optimisation and expansion of higher education in society, design majors within universities have gradually developed cross-cultural design courses. Teachers and international students with multicultural backgrounds have also been introduced, which makes the courses more international. However, most of the universities are still limited by the local environment in the teaching design of the course, and the traditional way of teaching in large classrooms and students submitting assignments cannot achieve the goal of flexible globalisation. This has led to the gradual emergence of an educational model of interdisciplinary communication in such an environment.

The concept of intercultural design is an important theoretical basis for the development of the contemporary market. Under the role of the whole market, cross-cultural product design should reasonably collect many aspects of culture. And understand the background of culture and contemporary cultural development. From the creation of cultural products to the cultivation of design talents, the preparatory force to adapt to multiple cultures should be developed. We should formulate feasible strategic objectives for the industry and integrate the essence of world civilisation to better face the cultural fusion under the trend of globalisation.

Authors and Affiliations

1. Beijing Normal University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

   Weiqi Jiang

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Weiqi Jiang .

Editors and Affiliations

1. Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

   Pei-Luen Patrick Rau

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