Ps and Q

From Maitra and Goswami:

The goal of the study was to discover the American readers’ expectations and preferences based on cultural bias, familiarity with American document design, and ignorance of Japanese culture.

American document design models emphasize: rhetorical situation, cognition, social psychology, discourse analysis, culture study, design elements, reading comprehension, and human and computer interaction. Japanese readers prefer ambiguity and have a “high-context” culture – the burden of comprehension is placed on the reader not the writer.

Where cross-cultural design is concerned, Japanese designers prefer to maintain ambiguity and aesthetics in visuals, whereas Americans prefer “clarity and culture neutrality.”

Are culturally neutral documents really possible? Is it better to maintain the context of the original document, or attempt to imitate a culture that we cannot deeply understand? What are possible compromises?