Cross-cultural issues in working with users in the design of interactive systems

Abstract

Globalization of markets means that interactive systems need to be usable and provide positive user experience (UX) to users in many different cultures. There is an increasing realization that systems may need to be localized to different cultures, but less realization that methods used to work with users also need to be localized. We present two case studies which investigate cultural differences in users’ interpretation of and reactions to methods used to elicit usability and UX information. The first case study investigated the use of photos and sketches with Nigerian and Anglo-Celtic participants, the second investigated the use of three different question types, Likert items, sentence completion questions and open-ended questions with Chinese and British participants. Conclusions are drawn for conducting crosscultural user research.