Thirteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

Displaying cultural anthropology of a society through design interventions can be said to be a unique selling point in the tourism industry. Preserving culture of a place and projecting them to tourists in the most effectual manner can be one way of attracting tourists. Many a times travelers have created a mental model of stereotyping a place based on what they hear or feel. The role of a designer is imperative while designing products, spaces, and services to display the identity of a tourist destination. This paper formulates a process that a designer can implement while designing spaces that infuse cultural elements of a society. It tries to understand the cultural elements that are used by designers in promoting the cultural identity of a place. For this purpose, card sorting method was used to cluster and categorize cultural elements in terms of their projection and display in the tourism industry. This was followed by an in depth interview to understand the mental models of the participants while they perform the card sorting exercise. For this study a sample set of thirty participants was selected based on purposeful sampling. The data collected was analyzed using cluster analysis and the data obtained from interview was analyzed using content analysis. A study on the existing theoretical cultural models and framework was also done to extract the cultural elements to be used for the framework design. This framework helps promote socio-cultural relations and awareness and appreciation of one another’s culture.