Cultural adaptation and information design: two contrasting views

Abstract

Approaches to using visual language in a cultural context can be placed on a continuum, with global (universal) on one end and culture-focused on the other. Each approach reveals contrasting assumptions about three central design issues: perception, aesthetics and pragmatics. The global approach is characterized by attempts to invent an objective, universal visual language or to define such a language through perceptual principles and empirical research. The culture-focused perspective is founded on the principle that visual communication is intimately bound to experience and hence can function only within a given cultural context, to which designers must be sensitive. While the modernist, universal approach has been losing ground to the postmodern, culture-focused approach, the two complement each other in a variety of ways and, depending on the rhetorical situation, offer pragmatic benefits and drawbacks.

Journal
IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
Published
1995-01-01
DOI
10.1109/47.475590
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
Topics
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (15)

  1. Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  3. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  4. Communication Design Quarterly
  5. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Show all 15 →
  1. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Communication Design Quarterly
  3. Communication Design Quarterly
  4. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  5. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  6. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  7. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  8. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  9. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  10. Journal of Business and Technical Communication

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