Cultural differences and design methods for user experience research: Dutch and Korean participants compared

Abstract

As business competition globalizes, understanding user experience from various cultures plays a crucial role in design process. However, because most user research methods were developed in Western area, one may question if the expected result can be obtained when applying them to totally different culture. The paper explores cultural effects on the feedback collected in the process and result of user experience research conducted in two countries, the Netherlands and Korea. We presumed four factors which influence user research process: spontaneity of participation, uncertainty avoidance, tendency of problem criticism, and attitude within a group. After the two sets of user research in two countries, actual differences of results were revealed. Consequently, guidelines of user experience research in Korea were suggested based on discovered differences. © 2007 ACM.