A hypothetical brand whose ecosystem aims to help individuals develop cultural sensitivity in an increasingly diverse society. With linguistic tools to educate, respect, and remove language barriers before traveling internationally. To those seeking to be open-minded about foreign cultures, Culturas makes users aware and connected with different local cultural communities outside their own perspective.
Culturas, derived from the Spanish word for culture, is inspired by the weaved threads of oriental textile fabrics. The mark represents an interconnected relationship with its adjacent strings that conceptually identify with Culturas ethos of forming connected communities with foreign cultures. Threads that weave friendships no matter your heritage.
Seeing as my visual identity involved the interaction of cultures, the color palette required minimal warm tones that would not compete with the vibrancy of oriental photography; while still keeping neutral tones to reduce contrast on screen. Typographically, I wanted the structure to feel bold to reflect the cultural personalities, with graphical elements pulling from the curved contour of my threaded logomark.
Initially, I just wanted an application for mobile devices because they were the most convenient. But as the process iterated, tablets and smart watches provided additional opportunities when a smartphone was not ideal or comfortable—providing bite-sized educational moments when you ideally want five minutes of quick engagement.
My research involved investigating how my application stood out amongst other brands in similar territory for learning cultural sensitivity. Most resources involved being either too general in their touchpoints or not really connected with the culture users were engaging with on an intimate level. Culturas’ opportunity was in filling that gap and being more down-to-earth.
To better understand and fully unravel the direction I wanted to head in, I interviewed two experts with diverse perspectives to discover pivotal insights. Iain Macpherson offered a more academic background, whereas Joel Garcia offered an indigenous background. Both helped to understand what culture meant to individuals, customs, and even non-linguistic communication cues such as body language.
Visiting countries can be difficult when you don’t know their customs, regional language differences, encounters with tourists that speak English more often than not, and being mindful of boundaries. This application looks at individuals that are two sides of the same coin: traveling tourists and locals—how their interactions might unfold.
With my user personas, a hypothetical scenario of what our users might encounter throughout their day designed to gauge how my application can find opportunities to alleviate frustrations, have features amplifying learning, or how they operate hour to hour.
Scenarios where a user might use the application and what device from the ecosystem (smartwatch, mobile device, laptop, etc.), the environment they find themselves in , are too busy to use their hands, or what is the simplest and fastest method to overcome language barriers.
Sitemap, features, user flow,
and device ecosystem
