Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
6 UI Language Components
and Cultural Markers
Given the intensification of globalization through communication technology, we are
faced more and more with UIs coming from different cultural backgrounds. There
is also a growing need to design UIs that are usable and well accepted in a targeted
culture. In order to match the user's cultural expectations as closely as possible,
designers need to combine usability knowledge with cultural insights to form a “cul-
turability,” as coined by Barber and Badre (1998). Cross-cultural testing of UIs is
the most comprehensive way to meet this goal, but it is also the most financially
demanding. Therefore, by defining a usable set of UI design guidelines for a tar-
get culture, designers could market their products with lower costs and with better
acceptance.
In our work we followed and expanded upon a body of previous research in the field
of cross-cultural research (e.g., Choong and Salvendy, 1998; Clemmensen and Roese,
2010; Evers, 1998; Ge et al., 2007; Hofstede, 2010; Hotchkiss, 2007; Kurniawan et al.,
2001; Marcus, 2001; Nisbett and Masuda, 2003; Shen, 2006; Smith, 2011; Tavassoli,
2002). Perhaps the most used model for cultural analysis is Hofstede's (2010), which
works with the following cultural dimensions: power distance, uncertainty avoidance,
masculinity vs. femininity, individualism vs. collectivism, and time orientation. In the
field of cross-cultural comparison (Dong and Lee, 2008), we can build upon a body
of previous research (Marcus and Gould, 2000; Sheridan, 2001; Smith et al., 2004).
In our view, however, only limited work has been done in creating usable guidelines
for cross-cultural UI design. We bring our insights from our cross-cultural work and
propose a set of design guidelines. Our approach, however, seeks to find different
categories that are directly based on our UI language components.
To promote this line of research, we decided to create a set of guidelines that could
be used to enhance the user's acceptation of the UI in a specific culture. To acquire the
necessary insights, we conducted a pilot study targeted at the habits, mental models,
and UI preferences of Chinese and Czech users. For this purpose, we chose to work
from the semiotic perspective that helps us uncover the sense-making processes of
the users. We used semiotic methods to build a common framework to gather and
analyze cross-cultural data. From our perspective, the UI is an example of complex
language. Consequently, in our research we focused on different components of the
UI language such as: discrete elements, interaction sentences, narration, rhetorical
tropes, and patterns. Focusing on these UI language components allowed us to focus
the scope of our research.
In order to focus the research, different types of signs were identified. These signs
are taken from all the semiotic planes, namely pragmatics (e.g., trust), semantics (e.g.,
navigation controls), syntax (e.g., color combinations), and lexical (e.g., direction of
written language). In the context of cross-cultural research these signs are called cul-
tural markers (Barber and Badre, 1998) or cultural attractors (Smith, 2004). “Cultural
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