7 - Curry Is Yellow in Japan but Orange in the US

Summary

Chapter 7 describes a study investigating cross-cultural differences in the ways in which the visual layout and colours are used figuratively in the design of app icons for food-related products and services in two very different cultures: the US and Japan. The study shows how the different colour-meaning associations that operate in these countries shape the designers’ choice of colour for the background of apps for different products (food and beverages) and services (including cooking, food delivery, exploration of new recipes, and calorie-counting). The presence of both metaphor and metonymy in the app icons is found to be comparable across the two cultures, with high levels of metonymy across the board. However, when metaphor or metonymy are used in the Japanese app icons, they are more likely to appear in clusters, whereas in the US app icons, they are more likely to appear in isolation. Both cultures use mainly schematic app icons, but the Japanese app icons are more likely to be content-rich than the US ones. In terms of the visual layout, verbo-pictorial images are most popular across the board; in addition to this, Japanese apps tend to be more visual than the US apps. Apps that appear towards the top of the downloads ranking in both the US and in Japan were more likely to contain metonymy but not necessarily metaphor. These apps are more likely to be schematic and are more likely to contain combinations of words and images. Taken together, the findings suggest that app designs are closely related to the product and service being provided by the app. They also suggest that schematic, metonymic apps that contain combinations of words and images are most likely to be successful in both cultures, but that different designs are preferred by the different cultures, with Japanese app culture being more visual than US app culture.