Indigenous languages shaping multi-lingual interfaces

This paper reports on an investigation into the indigenous language usage of two bilingual/multilingual digital libraries. Results show that the indigenous language was significantly used by clients and indicate why clients chose to use the indigenous language. Feedback from clients has suggested how the interface should be improved to assist both indigenous and non-indigenous language usage. These results serve as an example of how indigenous languages are shaping multilingual interfaces

Exploring Cultural Differences in HCI Education

The discipline of human-computer interaction has become a subject taught across universities around the world, outside of the cultures where it originated. However, the intercultural implication of its assimilation into the\ud syllabus of courses offered by universities around the world remains underresearched. The purpose of this ongoing research project is to provide insights for these implications in terms of the student and teacher experience of HCI. How this subject is socially represented across the different universities studied is a key question. In order to develop intercultural awareness of these questions\ud universities from UK, Namibia, Mexico and China are collaborating in a multiple case study involving students and lecturers engaged in evaluation and design tasks. Findings will then be used to propose an international HCI curriculum more supportive of local perspectives. This paper describes the initial steps of this study and some preliminary findings from Namibia, India and Mexico about cognitive styles and cultural attitudes

Examining the Impact of Culture and Language on the User Acceptance of the Media Website in Jordan

This study examines the website acceptance based on the information system quality and the impact of cultural dimensions and language components on the actual acceptance and usage of the identified media websites. Based on the data from three groups of users, namely the users of bbc.com to represent the purely English media websites, the al-jazeera.com representing the semi-localized media website and the al-rai.com representing the local websites. Questionnaires were administered to 420 internet users in different regions in Jordan. The questionnaire measures nine parameters which include the system accessibility, the response time, information quality, cultural adaptation, Arabic language, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitudes towards using the websites and the behavioral intention to use the websites. Capitalizing on the quantitative research methodology by expanding the technology acceptance model for the research framework, the findings showed that the cultural dimensions of power distance, collectivism, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance have the positive impact on the Jordanian users’ preference of the media websites. The conclusions are drawn from the positive impact of cultural adaptation on the perceived ease of use of the local websites and also on the users’ attitudes towards the use of the local websites. However, there is a negative impact based on the lack of cultural adaptation on the users’ attitudes towards the use of English originated websites. Similarly, there is no significant impact of the cultural adaptation on the users’ attitudes towards the use of the semi- localized websites. The research findings showed that the websites’ information system quality, the Arabic language usage and the Arabic cultural adaptation have positive impacts on the Jordanian users’ perceptions and acceptance in choosing the media websites as preferred websites

A New Collaborative Digital Social Space

To understand the web design principles in a Digital Social Space (DSS) that can attract multiple national cultures into one SNS platform, Internet communication users from different cultures were chosen as targets for this investigation, using questionnaires to collect user preferences on a digital social space. Social network sites (SNS) evolved within a short time into a popular Internet-mediated tool that is being used worldwide on a daily basis. Though presumptions in interaction through SNS create bias in web design that does not translate well into foreign cultures. Results revealed that different culture groups have different understandings of online communication tools in a Digital Social Space (DSS)