The impact of natural utilization of traditional Chinese cultural elements on the user experience in mobile interaction design

Abstract

This paper, by making two experiments, studies the impact of natural culture integration on the user experiences. The results of experiment I indicate that: (1) Cloud Pattern and Ink Painting are the most likely to activate “sliding” gesture, followed by “tapping” gesture; (2) Chinese Seals and Paper-cut tend to activate “pinching” gesture, followed by “sliding” and “tapping” gestures; (3) Gu Zheng and Shadow Figures have generally same tendency to activate “tapping”, “sliding” and “pinching” gestures; (4) Calligraphy tends to activate “sliding” gesture. The results of experiment II show that: (1) gesture type has very limited influence on the interaction experience; (2) task complexity affects the user experience significantly; (3) the way of integration of cultural elements has significant relationship with “Feedback Clarity”, “Easy-to-use”, “Satisfaction in Feedback”, “Satisfaction for Culture Utilization”, “Natural Degree of Culture Utilization” and “Degree of Interesting”, and has very limited correlations with “Feedback Understandability” and “Memorability”. Except for “Feedback Clarity”, other 5 evaluations are the best in the natural integration condition and the worst in no integration condition. In brief, the two experiments indicate that the natural integration of cultural elements promoted the user experience, even though it reduced the clarity.