The progression of globalisation, as a result of increasing market pressure and growing linkage of economies, strongly influences design processes. The development of products in global companies is no longer restricted to one location, it is more and more characterised by distributed design teams, who work in different places, time zones or even cultures. Especially the intercultural communication faces far more problems than just the diverse languages. Persons from different cultures have different educational backgrounds, value systems, behaviour patterns, etc. Consequently the dissimilar cultures pose a big restraint on effective distributed collaborative design. On the other hand the diversity of viewpoints in cultural teams could support creativity or lead to more products. In order to cope with the high market pressure and the proceeding globalisation it is important to improve intercultural collaboration. An in depth understanding of the varieties of design processes in differnt cultures has to be achieved. The aspects and impacts of cultural factors in the development process have to be considered.     «

The progression of globalisation, as a result of increasing market pressure and growing linkage of economies, strongly influences design processes. The development of products in global companies is no longer restricted to one location, it is more and more characterised by distributed design teams, who work in different places, time zones or even cultures. Especially the intercultural communication faces far more problems than just the diverse languages. Persons from different cultures have diff...     »