Experimenting 'design' to reveal cultural factors

New designs should support the everyday environment and should refer to existing designs that are familiar to users. These would help to motivate designers to develop culturally localised designs that allow products to be manufactured and relevant to users' current lifestyles. Despite the growing number of studies on cultural factors in marketing research, designers have not been given much opportunities to present their designing skills and thinking in conducting such research related to cultural thus leading to product improvement. This article describes a framework and results of adapting a "practice-led" research-based approach to understand cultural factors of a specific ethnic group in Malaysia whose members migrated from traditional rural life to urban industrial setting. Findings from adapting this method have been generated into a design-research guideline for designers and product planners to understand users' culturally determined needs when developing a cultural product

Design elements regarding to cultural factors of Iranian carpet

The aspect of physical and nonphysical factors influence to the success of new product to be competence in the current market. Culture factors is one of the elements which need to be considered by designer during new product development process. This paper examine references of cultural factors to accommodate with appropriate design elements preferences on Iranian carpet which were created based on people’s beliefs, tradition and product function. This study involved with qualitative method where interview has been conducted to identify prior culture factors influence to product to match with relevant design element which have strong influence to the product. This study can be useful to the designers in designing cultural product for the future. This work aimed to assist designers in designing product based on culture for specific users, which can also be beneficial for others interested in developing products based on culture factors

Adapting domestic product within cultural migration in Malaysia

Planning one new product for the cultural migrating community, users determined needs may be particularly unpredictable in a changing society. The growth of products from abroad might overlook the diversity of users’ culture. This shift is a challenge product planner and political experts. This paper illustrates how social researcher engaged in understanding about cultural migration and domestic product trend in Malaysia, where individuals, who find themselves in new environments, use and adapt household products to support both traditional and developing expectations. Findings from this work are beneficial to propose some principles of product migration in practice, and techniques for product planner and social scientist to developed a future product for a specific user to respond to these situations

Modeling the construction readiness parameters for abandoned housing projects in Malaysia: PLS-SEM approach

Purpose: This study aims to develop an interrelation model between critical parameters for assessing the construction readiness (CR) of abandoned housing projects, using Malaysia as a case study. To achieve that aim, the study objectives are to (1) identify critical parameters for assessing the CR of abandoned housing projects; (2) develop underlying constructs to categorize interrelated critical parameters and (3) assess the influence of the underlying constructs on the CR of abandoned housing projects. Design/methodology/approach: This study identifies potential parameters for assessing the CR of abandoned housing projects by reviewing existing literature and interviewing industry professionals. Then, the list was used to develop a questionnaire survey. The collected survey data were analyzed using normalized mean analysis to identify the critical parameters. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to develop underlying constructs to categorize interrelated critical parameters. Finally, the influence of the underlying constructs on the CR of abandoned housing projects was examined through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings: The analyses suggest that 21 critical parameters are affecting the CR of abandoned housing projects. The critical parameters can be categorized into four underlying constructs: construction site evaluation, management verification, uncertainties mitigation and document approval. Finally, the analyses confirmed that all four constructs affect the CR of abandoned housing projects. Originality/value: This study is a pioneering effort to quantitatively analyze the parameters for assessing the CR of abandoned housing projects. The findings significantly benefit researchers and industry professionals by providing a list of critical parameters associated with the CR of abandoned housing projects

Reviews of educational toys designs in cultivating social competence of preschool children

There is a need to embed social development attributes in educational toys design to cultivate children acquire higher competency personalities. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the attributes of social development through educational toys design in cultivating social and emotional development among preschool children. This study uses Literature Review to analyse the attributes of social skills development for educational toys designs. Prior investigation is carried out on methods in promoting positive social development towards young children and to understand the influence of educational toys design on children’s play environment. Additionally, this paper also uses Literature Review to document social behavioural aspects of pre-school children in Malaysia. The results are expected to lead towards the theoretical framework or guidelines in designing educational toys for the social development of children. This review will serve as a decree for consumers and product manufacturers to have a deeper understanding towards the social and emotional development of children, which would nurture the growth of their moral compass and improve their attitudes. Lastly, this paper is expected to contribute to the sustainable development in human ecology