Bridging Cultural Differences with Critical Design
in a Globalized World
Huatong Sun
Are simplicity and minimalism the universal design standards for interaction design? How can we avoid stereotyping with personas in design practices? What AI algorithms and design mechanism made “digital blackface” phenomenon on social media so popular?
This interactive course teaches participants reconsider some commonly held design beliefs and routine design practices with a lens of cultural differences. Illustrated with design case studies, it introduces strategies and techniques to turn differences into design resources for inclusivity. Participants will learn essential critical design skills of creating engaging and empowering designs in a globalized world at a divisive time.
Learning Goals
1. Decode design ideology behind everyday design artifacts and routine design practices
2. Understand cultural differences as dynamic and relational concerning cultural values, identity, race, and gender in a globalized world
3. Acquire essential skills to engage cultural differences and turn differences into design resources
4. Evaluate designs and explore design and innovation opportunities with a “discursive affordances” design instrument
Course Outline
- Intro
- Understanding cultural differences
- What’s a practice-oriented critical design approach?
- Mapping discursive affordances
- Turning differences into design resources
- Take-aways
About Instructor
Full Professor in cross-cultural, multi-cultural, and global UX design at University of Washington Tacoma. I teach and practice on how to design and innovate for usable, meaningful, and empowering technology in this globalized world to bridge cultural differences. Oxford University Press book author of Global Social Media Design (2020, Conference on College Composition and Communication [CCCC] Advancement of Knowledge Award, CCCC Research Impact Award, NCTE Best Book in Technical or Scientific Communication) and Cross-Cultural Technology Design (2012, NCTE Best Book in Technical or Scientific Communication), I write for public media including Fast Company and The Conversation. My community-engaged teaching innovation with marginalized user communities made me 2022 Jay R. Gould Award Winner for Excellence in Teaching from the Society for Technical Communication (STC) and the Distinction in the Practice of Diversity and Inclusion Award Winner of the Association for Business Communication (ABC).
This course is based on my longstanding research in cross-cultural, multicultural, and global design, which was given at CHI 2022 & 2023 and at other international conferences in multiple fields including IEEE Professional Communication Conference, ACM SIGDOC, CCCC 2022, STC Summit 2022, and ABC 2022 & 2023.