The project aims to make foreigners better understand local cultures. I designed a social media-like app that enables users to browse and add posts about cultural differences.
Try me š
Sep ā Dec 2021
UX research/design
School Project
Conceptual Project
I did't know there is a disposal under the sink for a month.
Why do random people smile at me?
I thought the flashing hand sign means that I can't cross the road.
immigrants
nonimmigrant foreign residents
immigrants
nonimmigrant foreign residents
Foreigners who plan to live in the host country for a long time need help and guidance to understand the local culture.
Help new foreign residents (temporary or permanent) perceive subtle cultural differences and unwritten rules of the local society.
1. Some cultural differences are subtle that foreigners might not understand.
Therefore, foreigners need to understand implicit social rules and solve problems in daily life.
: Did you know the difference in the bus before you came to America?
I4: No. No idea.
2. Some foreigners donāt know why they canāt accommodate well.
They donāt know what the problems are, so I try to increase peoplesā awareness of culture shock.
āI just feel like Iām kind of uncomfortable here. Thatās how like Iām not making friends as I expected. So, you know, itās itās itās like back then, there wasnāt really like any type of, you know, trying to solve this problem because I donāt even know what was the problem.ā -I5
3. Foreigners seek help from native friends or foreign friends who stay in the host country longer when they have difficulties.
Thus, improving intercultural interaction is important.
āI had a friend that lived here for a couple years, like she came about 2.3 years before I did. When I met up with her, I asked her that why do people just randomly say hi? or like this person say hi to meā¦ā āI1
19 yrs old
freshman
from China
new to the US
Goal
Frustration
26 yrs old
graduate student
from Brazil
been in the US for 4 yrs
Goal
Frustration
After have the understanding about the target users, Ā I brainstorm several ideas to solve the problem. For example, collecting peopleās experiences for others to refer (cultural differences set) and building a map integrating the stores/venues where are international friendly with event information.
Here are some sketches of them.
I chose to use the Questions, Options, and Criteria (QOC) method to decide which idea I would move forward with. The question is from my problem statement, the options are from my brainstorming, and the criteria used to judge the options is need finding from user interviews.
1. Assess design solution (options) by the criteria established based on interviews.
2. After deciding the design solution as a cultural difference set, assess how to provide the content.
So how the platform collecting cultural differences by users work?
This is the scenario of using the app, Worldiff. See how Worldiff works.
This is the flow chart of how users can operate the app.
Yes, users want to learn more about cultural differences.
However, if I don't know where differences are, who can I learn?
Because some cultural differences are subtle that foreigners might not realize and understand, when users donāt know where to start, they can Ā browse and explore to discover more differences.
The filter enable users to find posts related to their hometown and interested countries.
Through this, you can learn from who has a similar background as yours.
If users want to know specific topic, they can search for keywords.
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