Cultural ergonomics beyond culture - The collector as consumer in cultural product design

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the meaning of cultural objects and to extract their cultural features from Taiwan’s aboriginal culture. This paper attempts to illustrate how by enhancing the original meaning and images of Taiwan aboriginal culture features and by taking advantage of new production technology, they may be transformed into modern products and so fulfill the needs of the contemporary consumer market. The gungu, literally “weaving box”, in the Atayal aboriginal language, was chosen as the cultural object for this study. The paper focuses on and analyzes the weaving box’s appearance, usability, cultural meaning, operational interface, and the scenario in which it is used. Then, this article intends to create an interface for examining the way designers communicate across cultures as well as the interwoven experience of design and culture in the design process.