Cultural patterns in product design ideas: comparisons between Australian and Iranian student concepts

In the product development process, cultural influences arguably come into play, such that the concepts created by industrial designers are partly shaped by the designers' own cultural and societal values. This study investigates the integration of the cultural preferences of designers into their product design concepts as well as notes the culturally related similarities and differences in their product development approaches. Examination of data from a product conceptualisation exercise involving industrial design students from Australia and Iran revealed ten patterns within each cultural group. In studying these patterns, it became clear that there are links between the cultural characteristics of designers and the patterns that emerged from the concepts.