Intercultural Research in Multimedia Design with Pokémon
Background and Goals
What does “culture” mean in terms of visual style? The classic mode of creating visual designs in a modern “German” or “Japanese” style is for an artist to take a deep dive into the visual culture of the society, pulling out key elements (motifs). But how do we determine when our art resonates authentically to the people in the communities from which we have borrowed these elements?
I sought to generate intercultural dialogue and use this to design and refine multimedia applicable designs based on German cultural aesthetics. I also sought to develop a processes for designers engaged in similar intercultural design projects. Multimedia artists would be able to grow the appeal of designs if they were able to apply multicultural appeal and audience research into their work.
Pokémon provided a case study this research. Pokémon uses designs that are culturally inspired with appeal and use across intercultural markets and all media. While Pokémon has created designs inspired by other European regions, it has never depicted a Germanic region, allowing for an original intercultural study into such designs.
Progress and Development
In designing and gathering visuals I would often ask myself: Would Germans see these images as particularly German? Or was I creating something drawn from German visual elements but filtered through my own stereotypes of what “German” identity is interpreted as?
This is why throughout the project I would reiterate and test changes of designs to fit the common tastes of the interviewees. The more overlapping the opinions of the interviewees the better, and the stronger the consensus the stronger its favor. Over 60 pages of notes and recorded data has been generated which continues to be processed and analyzed to specify findings. There are currently dozens and dozens of in-draft designs or concepts, as well as more documented motifs and myths that can illustrate a full region.
Results of Designs
I incorporated my intercultural design processes into broader Human-Centered design methods to deliver and illustrate multipurpose designs from intercultural audience testing. By filtering through lists of concepts, user testing, and reiteration, I was able to visualize several original creature designs while harnessing the design language and conventions of Pokémon. A few of the most frequently liked and discussed designs are being shown to the left.
The taste of various interlocutors defining German designs and visuals was organized by three key problematics. The first involves the emergence of dualities such as brutalist/minimalist versus fanciful/detailed designs or motifs drawn from history, folklore, and heritage versus those expressing modernity and technology. I hope to be able represent both sides of these differing approaches in future designs.
Second, while my original motifs were drawn primarily from historical and mythological sources that, while known to my interlocutors, were not familiar to them. Rather, they preferred to make comparisons to things and topics relevant to their daily lives, or personally known to them. This affected what designs they would gravitate towards or choose to discuss.
Finally, conceptual designs that involved stereotypical “German” items such as beer generated significant splits in interlocutor perceptions as they sought to embrace the identification while still avoiding stereotypes. Ultimately, instead of a continuum, there was a split in perceptions but it was heavily skewed towards a majority favoring a particular set of designs. The identification of the beer became more declared as needed iconography that the interlocutors wanted to see more of and was a frequent favorite across all participants.
What would a German Pokémon Region look like?
How can designs be inspired through a practiced methodology in research and user experience to bring about appealing and unique designs?
Research Methods
Interlocutors were recruited through a snowballing technique in which each suggested other people they knew who might be interested in the art and in Pokémon.
My primary methodology was ethnographic interviewing. Ethnographic interviews are informal, open-ended, and dialogical. The goal is to lead the informant to produce discourse—stories, explanations, anecdotes, assertions—which can subsequently be analyzed to answer research questions. Although interviewees were asked set questions for essential data, most of the set questions would be molded to the interviewee. I also used a technique called “elicitation” in which I shared art with interlocutors, and elicited responses. I redesigned the art, and used the new designs to elicit additional responses and so forth.
Interviews were recorded and recordings were coded to find frequencies in data and correlate it with answers from other interviewees. Co-occurrences discovered among the different participants helped locate common themes, topics, discussions, or ideas that could be used to shape the designs.
Results of Discussion
One of the most result findings involved frequent discussions by interviewees concerning regional disparities within Germany. Whether it be from the differences of East and West Germany, North and South, or by the many cultural divisions between provinces or blends of cultures within Germany, many interlocutors made claims about cultural distinctions within “German” culture as a key topic for understanding art and culture. Discussion of disparities frequently co-occurred with expressions of desire for stronger unity and community, especially between the East and West. A connecting thread found amongst most participants involved a sensation of unease or “dissonance” with discussions of German identity. More than half of interlocutors expressed this unease. Some suggested the feeling involved a weight of responsibility for the past, or discomfort with how outsiders view Germans, or East Germans specifically. Themes and shared ideas such as this become important when forming the tone around the project, which is an important factor when leading into visual design. Awareness both of regional differences and uneasiness with conceptualization of broadly “German” culture was also crucial for determining where and how to develop ideas. The themes found within interlocutor dialogues would translate into the themes found in the inspiration and ideation of designs. If this project were to expand and continually realize a full Pokemon region and theoretical game concept, these themes and feelings would take an integral role in shaping the region’s design, tone, and overarching plot line.
Implications and Conclusions
As interpretations, opinions, and perspectives vary from person to person, this is taken to account whether that person is a research interviewee or a consumer of media. I often found that the best methods of research was through combining rigid practices and malleable tactics. By merging ethnographic techniques into interviews with set needed questions, I was able to extract more integral data and often new insights I would not have otherwise found if I stuck with my original set questions. But if I fully changed my questions with the flow of conversation, I would have lacked comparable and effective data to study. The key to establishing strong user data is found through the balance of both a set of interview questions and creating new fitting discussions in the moment to form around the development of the interview. By intentionally asking questions that can seek new insights personal to the interviewee while matching with needed topics of discussions or previous topics of other interviews, I was able to extrapolate connected themes, concepts, and personal beliefs that standardized questions wouldn’t have effectively gained.
By adopting similar attention and detail into cultural inspiration of any kind for any design, the effectiveness and appeal of the design may be bolstered when approached with the lens of ethnographic anthropological research.