Are Usability Assessment Techniques Reliable in Non‐Western Cultures?

Yeo, Alvin

doi:10.1002/j.1681-4835.2000.tb00015.x

Cited by 16 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Therefore, the web browser and its icons should be intuitive, associative and easy to navigate, in supporting the comprehensibility of Chinese web users. With the rapid growth of usage of computers and the Internet, designers need to be culturally-sensitive to specific users needs (Barber and Badre 1998;Bourges-Waldegg and Scrivener 1998;Every 1999;Yeo 2000).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chinese Users’ Preference for Web Browser Icons

Shen¹,

Prior²,

Chen³

et al. 2009

Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal—Annua

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chinese Users’ Preference for Web Browser Icons

Shen¹,

Prior²,

Chen³

et al. 2009

Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal—Annua

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“…With the rapid growth of usage of computers and the Internet, designers need to be culturally-sensitive to specific users needs [1,3,7,16].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing of a Novel Web Browser Interface for the Chinese Market

Shen

Prior

Chen

2009

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

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Abstract. This paper compares the perspicacity, appropriateness and preference of web browser icons from leading software providers with those of a culturespecific design. This online study was conducted in Taiwan and involved 103 participants, who were given three sets of web browser icons to review, namely Microsoft Internet Explorer, Macintosh Safari, and culturally specific icons created using the Culture-Centred Design methodology. The findings of the study show that all three sets have generally high recognition rates, but that some icon functions (e.g. Go/Visit and Favourite) in all three sets have poor recognition rates and are considered inappropriate.

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“…Herman (1996) suggests that there may also be inconsistencies between objective usability evaluation results (performance measures) and subjective evaluation results (questionnaires and interviews), that are due to culturalhehavioral characteristics of the users. However, Yeo's (2000) studies, in which he compared positive and negative comments in think-out-loud protocols (objective measures) with a System Usability Scale-a questionnaire-and interviews (subjective measures), showed different results. There was a moderate positive correlation, but the correlation was strongest for users who had previous experience with similar software.…”

Section: Usability Measuring Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 93%

Interface design and culture

Callahan

2005

Annual Review Info Sci & Tec

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IntroductionIt is common knowledge that computer interfaces in different cultures vary. Interface designers present information in different languages, use different iconography to designate concepts, and employ different standards for dates, time, and numbers. These manifest differences beg the question of how easily an interface designed in one country can be used in and transferred to another country. Are the challenges involved in adaptation merely cosmetic or are they shaped by more profound forces? Do all cultures respond to interfaces in similar ways, or does culture itself shape user comprehension? If culture is a factor in explaining varied user reactions to comparable interfaces, what specific cultural dimensions are responsible for the divergences? Do differences reside mainly at the level of national cultures, or do they depend on other vanables such as class, gender, age, education, and expertise with technology? In the face of a potentially large number of explanatory variables, how do we delimit a workable concept of culture and yet remain cognizant of other factors that might shape the results of culture and interface research?Questions such as these have been asked in the ergonomics community since the early 1970s, when the industrialization of developing countries created a need for more research on cultural differences (Honold, 1999), resulting in an increased interest in the universal applicability of ergonomic principles. This trend continued after the reunification of Germany and the emergence of market economies in Eastern Europe (Nielsen, 1990). In the mid-l990s, as markets outside the U.S. rapidly expanded, it became necessary to develop appropriate user interfaces for non-Western cultures in order to facilitate international cooperation. This fresh impetus for research led to the development of practical guidelines and a body of case studies and examples of possible solutions. Most recently we have seen attempts to provide a theoretical foundation for cross-cultural usability engineering and experimental comparison studies (Honold, 1999).The literature on international issues in human-computer interaction consists of three major types: 1) design guidelines, pointing out 258 Annual Review of Information Science and Technology issues of which designers should be aware when creating an interface for use in a foreign country, 2) theoretical works on cultural differences, which attempt to evaluate how cultural models from other fields can be applied to interface design, and 3) empirical research, dealing with various aspects of interface design in selected countries.Design guidelines are the largest group and concentrate on culturally acceptable screen elements such as date and time formats, text flow, collating sequences, and numeric formats. These elements, if not used appropriately, may impair understanding of the interface features and functions. But design guidelines do not provide much understanding of how users from different cultures interact with computers, or any similarities and di...

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Are Usability Assessment Techniques Reliable in Non‐Western Cultures?

Cited by 16 publications

References 8 publications

Chinese Users’ Preference for Web Browser Icons

Chinese Users’ Preference for Web Browser Icons

Testing of a Novel Web Browser Interface for the Chinese Market

Interface design and culture

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