Discussion and Conclusion - Cross-Cultural Human-Computer Interaction and User Experience Design - page 154

• Free-flow layout is easier to use than a grid-based layout.
• Users tend to read from top left towards the center of the screen.
• Left-to-right lines of text are easier to read than top-to-bottom and right-to-
left lines.
• There is a close similarity between sequential information structure in lan-
guage and horizontal structure in visual composition.
• Curves stand for softness (and would be better perceived), while straight
lines stand for hardness.
• Rounded corners (curvilinear patterns) are better perceived than square cor-
ners (geometrical patterns).
• Copied elements are better perceived than original elements.
• Icons presenting objects with a description are more understandable than
those without a description.
Color.
• Users would prefer lighter (pastel) colors and a white background.
• Personal websites would use a wider color palette than websites for other
purposes.
Symbol.
• Icons presenting situations are more intuitive than those containing objects.
The Czech sample preferred image icons to those presenting situations, in
contrast with the Chinese results.
• There is a close similarity between sequential information structure in lan-
guage and horizontal structure in visual composition. Verb (pointer index)
and adverb (“+” sign) would mimic their position in a sentence (i.e., the verb
comes before the adverb).
• Users can recognize visual patterns occurring in the UI.
• Copied elements are better perceived than original elements.
• The sequence of input in a faceted search follows the sequence of natural
language. The subject comes first (relating to the user's gender, or size), fol-
lowed by an implied verb and adverb (purpose), and finally the object (price,
color, rating etc). In contrast to the Chinese results, the Czech respondents
would put size after gender (instead of purpose), purpose instead of price,
and price as the last, omitting thus color and rating.
• The use of Chinese calligraphy was praised by the users.
Look and feel.
• Menus starting with verbs are considered more natural than those starting
with nouns. Although the noun and verb menu was regarded as easy to un-
derstand, a verb-driven menu was preferred in that it showed a clear purpose
to the user. In contrast, the Czech sample expressed a strong preference
towards nouns, as these were the most intelligible.