Cultural aspects of package designs

In cognitive psychology, some scientists thoroughly deal with the influence of the reading direction and the figure-ground separation on visual evaluation of images and alignment of focus objects. The reading direction influence among others the aesthetic judgment to a large extent: persons, who read from right to left, prefer pictures with the same orientation (i.e., right to left). In addition, research findings of figure-ground separation demonstrate, that members of Western cultures tend to focus on subjects or objects, which are located in the
front of a picture (e.g., if a photo portrays a person within an environment, Westerners tend to appraise it by concentrating on − the facial expression of − this person). People from Eastern cultures, however, tend to pay more attention to the context. This study deals with the visual assessment of the design of a product packaging in retailing. In particular, we analyze the effects of the orientation of a focus object and its figure-ground separation on visual attention and evaluation. Respondents with three different cultural backgrounds
(Austrian, Chinese and Israeli) are exposed to experimentally manipulated packaging with left-right and right-left orientation of the focus object. Visual attention generated is measured by means of eye-tracking. The evaluation, as well as the likelihood of buying the product is measured by means of a questionnaire. By and large, results are in accordance with stated hypotheses.