Cross-Cultural Product Design by Chen Zhang A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Design in Industrial Design Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2019 Chen Zhang I Abstract The research talks about cross-cultural product design which combines cultural tradition and user’s behavior and perception. It provides an example of a tea product design, demonstrating the process of how to include Chinese’s tea culture and perception about tea drinking from people who live in North America in a cross-cultural product. To understand what are Chinese cultural elements and the users’ perceptions about tea, this study first investigated current Chinese cultural products and conducted 100 interviews about drinking tea. In conclusion, Chinese cultural elements mainly used in current cultural products are pattern, form, material, function, historical or literal figures in cute mascot, story/anecdote, and metaphor. The participants mostly regarded drinking tea as a relaxation, social activity, and keeping health. Some of them also related tea with ceremonial, cultural tradition, emotional attachment and atmosphere. In addition, convenience of making tea is a consideration as well. The final tea set design considered the Chinese cultural elements including pattern, form and material and the users’ conceptions of relaxation, social relationship, cultural tradition, ceremonial and convenience. This study suggested a method of designing a cross-cultural product, which consists of two main parts. One is to investigate the traditional design elements of one’s culture and the other is to learn the users’ perceptions. The final design will take both considerations into account. Keywords: cross-cultural design, tea product, Chinses and Canadian. II Acknowledgments I would first like to thank my thesis advisor professor WonJoon Chung of the School of Industrial Design at Carleton University. He consistently allowed this paper to be my work but steered me in the right the direction whenever he thought I needed it. I would also like to thank all the interviewees who were involved in the interviews for this research project. I would also like to acknowledge Professor Birgit Hopfener of the Art History department at Carleton University as the second advisor of this thesis, and I am gratefully indebted to her for her very valuable comments on this thesis. Finally, I must express my very profound gratitude to my parents for providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout my years of study and through the process of researching and writing this thesis. This accomplishment would not have been possible without them. Thank you. III Table of Contents Abstract.............................................................................................................................Ⅱ Acknowledgments............................................................................................................Ⅲ Table of Contents..............................................................................................................Ⅳ List of Tables .................................................................................................................Ⅶ List of Figures...................................................................................................................Ⅷ List of Appendices........................................................................................................... Ⅺ CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................1 1.1 Background .........................................................................................................1 1.2 Purpose of the study ............................................................................................2 1.3 Research questions ...................................................................................................... 3 1.4 Thesis Structure ........................................................................................................... 4 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................6 2.1 Definition of global users ......................................................................................... 6 2.2 Simple style ................................................................................................................ 6 2.3 Cross-cultural design vs. cultural design ................................................................ 7 2.3.1 What is a cross-cultural design? ............................................................... 7 2.3.2 What is cultural design? ............................................................................. 9 IV 2.3.3 How culture influences human-product interaction and user experience? .........................................................................................11 2.3.4 Culture and Emotion----Nostalgia ......................................................12 2.3.5 Chinese culture in North America and Tea drinking ..........................13 2.3.6 Tea consumption in North America ....................................................16 2.4 Three Levels of cultural design .......................................................................16 2.4.1 Outer level: Unique style .......................................................................... 17 2.4.2 Middle level: Different functions ............................................................ 19 2.4.3 Inner level: emotions----nostalgia .......................................................20 2.5 Various Tea Cultures in different countries ....................................................23 2.5.1 Japanese tea ........................................................................................23 2.5.2 British tea ............................................................................................24 2.5.3 Indian tea .............................................................................................24 2.5.4 Korean tea ...........................................................................................25 2.5.5 Chinese Kung Fu tea ...........................................................................25 3 METHOD ...................................................................................................................28 3.1 Analysis of Chinese cultural product .................................................................. 28 3.1.1 Outer level: Unique style ....................................................................28 3.1.2 Mid-level: Functions based on different lifestyle ...............................38 3.1.3 Inner level ...........................................................................................41 3.2 Understand User’s (i.e. tea drinkers) perception ............................................49 3.2.1 Semi-structured Interviews Sampling ................................................50 3.2.2 Data Analysis ......................................................................................53 V 3.3 Design of cross-cultural tea set ............................................................................. 63 3.3.1 Position map .......................................................................................63 3.3.2 Design Implication ..............................................................................67 3.4 How does the tea set appeal to global market as a cross-cultural product? ..... 72 3.4.1 Simple style ................................................................................................ 72 3.4.2 Traditional elements ................................................................................. 73 3.4.3 Users Perceptions ................................................................................74 4 RESULTS ...................................................................................................................75 4.1 Design Considerations .....................................................................................75 5 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................78 5.1 Contributions ............................................................................................................ 78 5.2 Discussion .......................................................................................................78 5.3 Further development ........................................................................................79 Appendices .......................................................................................................................80 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................123 VI List of Tables Table Pages 1 Table 1 The Chinese population in the Canadian regions ....................................13 2 Table 2 The three levels of cultural design ............................................................17 3 Table 3 Summary of current cross-cultural products .............................................22 4 Table 4 Summary of tea ceremonial aspects in different tea cultures ..................27 5 Table 5 Different Vocations of Interviewees .........................................................51 6 Table 6 Cultural background of Interviewees ........................................................52