Cultural theory helps us understand users’ needs and desires; it sheds light on why people are likely to adopt one trend but not another and helps indicate what cultural influences are shaping society at any given time. It points out things like why our love for the iPod extends beyond its functionality as an MP3 player and includes our collective embrace of its distinctive white headphone cords. So although design practice has ways of understanding technological features-and of eliciting user needs-cultural theory helps to illustrate the symbolic value of technological artifacts, which is often at least as important to their adoption and use as their instrumental functions. This makes cultural theory a viable way for a designer of new technologies to produce a well received product or service.

The use of cultural theory in the design process is not necessarily about telling designers to “do” something different. Instead, like other theories, it is about thinking differently. The use of cultural theory is being applied in the development of a mobile phone prototype called Swarm, illustrating how different conceptual thinking can lead to actual results. This is followed by speculation about how this type of thinking can be applied as part of the design process.