Cross-platform cross-cultural user experience

Abstract

Many interactive systems can be accessed across a range of different platforms, enabling cross-platform services and allowing users to migrate their tasks from one platform to another. The aim of this study is to investigate the culture-related experiential side of using multiple interactive systems across platforms by studying users from different cultural backgrounds. In this paper, we present our findings from a user study of five cross-platform services. We conducted the user study in Australia and Saudi Arabia. Participants in Australia and Saudi Arabia interacted with English and Arabic versions of the services respectively. We used think-aloud protocol, observation and questionnaires to gather data. During our experiments, each participant performed a set of inter-related tasks using a cross-platform service across two devices: laptop and mobile phone. We identified five objective cultural factors (direction, translation, meaning of icons, formatting, and typing interface) that influence cross-platform user experience. The power distance and uncertainty avoidance subjective cultural dimensions also influenced user perception of cross-platform services. Based on our findings and analyses, we propose a design model that encompasses these cultural factors to guide designing international cross-platform services.