I’ve had this laying on my powerbook for way too long. I wrote it even before we launched CPH127 (at that time codenamed HCAB27), that is now 70-some days ago.
Do you run a security company with a green logo and approaching the
French market, you are in big trouble. In France green is similar to
criminality, where as in the US it is equal to safety. The other way
around, it wouldn’t be a good idea to focus on white if you provide
health care services and want to approach the Asian markets. In both
China and Japan white is perceived as death, where as in France and the
US it indicates neutrality and purity.
A cheap trick would
be to stick with a colour like blue, which in the most parts of the
world is perceived positively. It is, though, worth considering that
you would have to differentiate and most corporations already have most
of their designing done in blue nuances. It is however possible to
consider these terms in order to plan your process towards an effective
design to support your marketing efforts.
On the web a hot
buzzword for the time is User Experience, or just UX as some prefer to
refer to it. Having a good User Experience on your global website
requires you to do specific market research in various countries in
order to approach each country right. A company that puts a lot of
effect into this is Nokia, which has done a lot of research in
cross-cultural differences and employ usability experts in India and
Africa. They even wrote an excellent book on the subject.
Since we launched in the beginning of March we have had visitors from United States, Denmark, United Kingdom, Canada, Netherlands, France, Australia, Germany, South Africa, Spain, Russia, India, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Japan, Estonia, New Zealand, Finland, Belgium, Brazil, Taiwan, Singapore, Poland, Turkey, Norway, Romania, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Israel, China, Mexico, Austria, South Korea, Bahrain, Malaysia, Argentina, Ukraine, Croatia, Slovenia, Ireland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Uruguay, Chile, Greece, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Philippines, Ghana, Iceland, Thailand, Morocco, Lebanon, Colombia, Bangladesh, Czech Republic, Macedonia, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Lithuania, Peru, Syrian Arab Republic, Latvia, Hungary, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, Oman, Indonesia and Tanzania. Maybe we should start thinking about global design? (The countrynames are sorted by the number of visitors)
What I think these books and awards are missing is acknowledging the process – the way to the outstanding product, service or businessperformance.
