Cultural differences w. color perception?

["Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Richard Burkhart wonders: <<Has anyone run across studies on how people from
different cultures view color?>>

There's been lots written on this topic. Have a look at Nancy Hoft's book
(International Technical Communication: How to Export Information about High
Technology), for instance. Moreover, look for books that tell you about
dealing with or living in specific cultures; before I went to China, for
instance, I found a lot of useful etiquette information in Scott Seligman's
"Chinese business etiquette".

Another great source: The CIA World Factbook and most embassy or "Foreign
Affairs" Web pages (available online) offer more  information than you'd
believe possible as etiquette advice to tourists. Have a look there too.
Last but not least, do a Web search on "etiquette" plus the country you're
targeting. I turned up tons of stuff on China this way.

But take all this information with several grains of salt. First off, people
are people no matter what culture they're from, and that means enormous
variation in how people react. Cultures are rarely monolithic. Second, many
of these generalisations are very context-specific. For example, you
wouldn't want to wear white to a traditional Chinese wedding or send a
formal gift in white wrapping paper, but there's nothing wrong with white
paper for a book or a white background for a Web page.

Moreover, I discovered in China that most people have long since accepted
Western arrogance as a fact of life and learned to deal with Western styles.
In China, for example, one of the bigger translation agencies never
localizes their documentation because their clients don't require it: the
average Chinese apparently has long since learned to cope with Western
documentation, rhetorical and cultural differences notwithstanding. You do
want to avoid obvious gaffes, but most people are more tolerant of
differences than you'd expect.

<<I think Coca-Cola changed to green cans in the middle east.>>

Perhaps in Muslim countries, but I have a traditional red Coke can from
Israel with Hebrew script instead of English.

<<From my perspective, when doing layouts for people (in an office that has
Iranian and Pakistani project managers) sometimes the P.M. in question and I
end up in debates about color choices for what I'm producing... The project
manager disagrees, and requests a color that "just ain't raaiht.">>

If you're designing for Iranians and Pakistanis, then take their advice
seriously enough to research it. But if you're not, promoting and adhering
to a single corporate standard can eliminate such arguments in future. The
trick is arriving at a standard.

--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
(try ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca if you get no response)
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada 

Vah! Denuone Latine loquebar? Me ineptum. Interdum modo elabitur. (Oh! Was I
speaking Latin again? Silly me. Sometimes it just sort of slips
out.)--Anonymous

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ROBOHELP FOR FRAMEMAKER TRIAL NOW AVAILABLE!

RoboHelp for FrameMaker is a NEW online publishing tool for FrameMaker that
lets you easily single-source content to online Help, intranet, and Web.  
The interface is designed for FrameMaker users, so there is little or no
learning curve and no macro language required! Call 800-718-4407 for 
competitive pricing or download a trial at: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l4

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.