App Abroad and Mundane Encounters: Challenging How National Cultural Identity Heuristics Are Used in Information Design

Purpose: The goal of this article is two-fold:

• It argues technical communicators can challenge current models and/or approaches of how to design materials for international audiences.

• It explains how technical communicators might consider using a technique offered by a mobile application called App Abroad to document commonplace cultural interactions to support reflection from users from different cultures.

Methods: The article draws from technical communication theory and practice to explain a bottom-up method of designing effective materials for international audiences.

Results: By creating opportunities to document cultural encounters through media that can convey the complexity of face-to-face communication, readers learn to seek a more bottom-up approach to understanding culture.

Conclusion: Because culture is not static but constantly transforming, technical communicators must challenge traditional models that seek to address culture from the perspective of a single, national cultural identity. Rather, a more “bottom-up” (that is, not predetermined) understanding of cultural communication practices is needed to help technical communicators create more effective materials for international users. A bottom-up understanding of culture can support improved intercultural technical communication outcomes.