Alejandra Vilaplana
Toyota Motor Europe, Belgium
Alexandre Gentner
Toyota Motor Europe, Belgium
Carole Favart
Toyota Motor Europe, Belgium
Download articlePublished in: KEER2018, Go Green with Emotion. 7th International Conference on Kansei Engineering & Emotion Research 2018, 19-22 March 2018, Kuching, Malaysia
Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings 146:11, p. 101-110
Published: 2018-03-13
ISBN: 978-91-7685-314-6
ISSN: 1650-3686 (print), 1650-3740 (online)
In our globalized environment, and particularly in the context of industrial design activities in international companies or research institutions, it is increasingly frequent to take part in diverse scenarios involving at least two different cultural contexts. Therefore, it becomes an essential point during the initiation of the design process to achieve an optimal transmission of design information in order to increase the added value of the project through the implementation of accurate cultural layers. However, issues pertaining to communication may arise throughout the process if there is an inadequacy in cultural understanding. Hence, it is crucial to address the significance of cross-cultural tools to be used in communication of the design information in its initial phase. Two case studies are referred to openly discuss the matter. Both cases correspond to research projects that were conducted at the Kansei Design division, Toyota Motor Europe (KD-TME). Both projects generated specific tools as a practical output for strategists and designers to use as a way to produce inspirational materials or define a target user, with a more grounded and sensible cultural base.