Brazilian cultural differences and their effects on the web interfaces user experience

Abstract

Having an interface that provides good user experience has become a critical factor for success in information systems. Cultural differences, however, may have a significant impact in this experience, but are seldom taken into account during interface design and evaluation, particularly in Brazil, a multicultural country with continental dimensions. Our goal was to investigate whether the cultural differences between the five socio-economical macro-regions of Brazil are profound enough to impact user experience in web-based interfaces and, if so, how. We performed an experiment with 110 participants, 22 per region, comparing cultural differences elicited by VSM with performance and evaluation of a fictitious Internet Banking System. Cultural differences were identified and correlated with differences in user experience, particularly in regards to the amount of information and colors shown in the interface.