Cross-cultural differences in automotive HMI design : a comparative study between UK and Indian users’ design preferences

This paper presents a research study examining the importance of understanding automotive users’ cultural values and their individual preferences for human machine interface (HMI) design features and functionalities. The goal of this research was to explore how a cultural model can be applied in the development of automotive HMI solutions and future design localization. To meet this goal, it was necessary to (a) identify the characteristics of the Hofstede cultural model, (b) identify the differences in cultural values using the model, and (c) identify regional differences in HMI design needs and preferences across drivers from India and the UK. The results highlighted differences in expectations for HMI systems between the groups, suggesting an influence of culture on the perception of vehicle user interface technology. This led to the conclusion that an understanding of cultural biases can influence design localization and support development strategies. In addition, two main categories of further research have arisen as a result of this project. The first category focuses on identifying methodologies to establish relationships between culture and regional drivers’ HMI design preferences. The second category comprises new research questions on tools and processes to deal with cultural influences

Persuasive and Culture-aware Feedback Acquisition

User feedback is an important factor to improve software quality. For example, it can provide information on missing features and clarify user trends and preferences for future improvement. However, gathering user’s feedback is not an easy process since the majority of users lack motivation and interest in providing feedback, especially in a constant and frequent style. In addition, stud- ies have noted that the cultural differences among users also play a role in affect- ing their motivations to feedback acquisition. In this paper, we empirically inves- tigate the role of culture in affecting users’ perception and motivations to give feedback. Our study identifies some key differences between Western and Mid- dle Eastern users on what motivate them to provide feedback and what could have an influence on the quality of the feedback they give. This also makes the case for the need to design a persuasive and culture-aware feedback acquisition

Cultural Aspects for Technology Acceptance: Asian Perspectives and Research Techniques

This study continues previous research on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis, 1986) conducted in Australia (Evers & Day, 1997) by reporting findings from data collected in the Peoples’ Republic of China. This study extends the TAM model by introducing cultural preferences for interface design features. It finds a strong relationship between perceived usefulness and attitude of satisfaction as well as confirming many other relationships between the constructs in the extended TAM model. Secondly, it addresses an important issue in cross-cultural empirical research: the potential impact of administering surveys in respondents’ native languages rather than in the researchers’ own languages and finds that responses of a single culture (Chinese) differ between indigenous Chinese and ex-patriot Chinese

Application of human computer interaction in developing an it-supported design collaboration process

Increasing globalisation and international collaboration have led to an increaseddemand for improvedcommunication within design collaboration processes. To address this issue, IT-supported design collaboration processes have been utilised, enablingprofessional design team members to work in a distributed design environment. However, IT-supported systems often lack human understanding, making such systems frustrating for professionals to use.The objective of this theoretical paper is to propose Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) integrated approaches that improve the interaction among professional design team members and collaborative technologies in a distributed design environment. This is particularly examined in the context of the building industry. For this purpose,this paper analysesthe related literature in design collaboration processes. This analysis is used toassess how earlier systems affect design team members’ capabilitiesto accept and use collaborative technologies.It is found that in addition to impacting the ergonomic and cognitive capabilities of professionals, a system should also motivate professionals intrinsically and extrinsically. The findings of this study are essential forpromoting the utility of IT-supported design collaboration projects.In addition, this study supports further research to increase the level of engagement in collaborative team work and mitigate knowledge loss in a complex project lifecycle

Cultural effect on electronic consumer behaviour: the effect of uncertainty avoidance on online trust for the Egyptian Internet users

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The ubiquitous nature of e-commerce demands an innovative conceptualization of consumer behaviour that responds to various cultural preferences. Culture has been identified as an underlying determinant of consumer behaviour, and this extends to ecommerce. This research investigates this phenomenon for the Egyptian consumer. This research designed a plausible, integrated framework for investigating the target phenomenon, especially for un-explored cultures. To help to identify salient components of the phenomenon, a three-study exploratory phase, that included: interviews, a survey, and card sorting sessions, was undertaken. The exploratory results highlighted the roles of trust, uncertainty avoidance, Internet store familiarity, and reputation as the main salient factors affecting the perception of the targeted group toward e-commerce. The research hypotheses were then developed based on the exploratory results. Finally, a model testing phase to empirically assess the research hypotheses through a laboratory experiential survey with 370 Egyptian Internet users was undertaken. The experiential survey results support the significant role of the Internet store’s perceived familiarity and reputation as the main antecedents of online trust. The relationship between trust and its two antecedents are found to be culturally sensitive; the high uncertainty avoidance of the consumer is found to be associated with a stronger effect of the store’s reputation on trust, and a stronger effect of store’s familiarity on trust. The research also highlights the significant effect of trust on the attitude towards and the willingness to buy from an e-commerce site. This research, by providing an understanding of the cultural drivers of e-commerce, contributes to building a theory of consumer’s cultural trust within an Internet store context. The research reports on the development of an integrated cultural trust model that highlights recommendations for expanding the adoption of e-commerce. The systematic research framework, introduced by this research, can be a robust starting point for further related work in this area

Intercultural User Evaluation of the Design of Arabic Websites: A Case Study

The cultural background of web users is argued to play a key role in the way they interact with and perceive the usability and usefulness of websites. The objective of this case study is to identify Arab users' preferences and expectations of the design of Arabic websites in order to examine whether these preferences are consistent with their cultural-specific attributes as described and predicted by Hofstede's model of cultural dimensions. Thirty three participants from two Arab countries evaluated and compared two websites, one from their own country and a second one from another Arab country within the same culture. The preliminary results suggest that they show an overall preference for a website developed for their country over another from other Arab countries, even if they share the same culture.publishedye

Online Surveys in Collecting Cross-Cultural Qualitative User Experience Feedback

Globalisation of markets means that many interactive technology products and services need to be usable and provide a positive User Experience (UX) to people in various target market areas. Simultaneously, over the last decade, positive UX has become an important quality attribute and a business-critical asset in the design of interactive technology products and services. Different countries have different cultural values, which direct the way in which people interpret and use technology products and services. Therefore, to ensure that products and services are easy to use and that they provide a positive UX across cultural boundaries, there is a need to understand how local cultures may affect the use of and interaction with technology. Cultural issues affect not only the UX of technology products and services but also the UX research methods. Culture itself is a complex concept affecting a vast area of human life and interaction. Consequently, designers are facing challenges in creating a delightful UX for an increasing number of users from different cultural backgrounds.In this thesis work, we aim to produce original contributions by investigating and developing better online survey tools and insights about their applicability in cross-cultural remote online UX research. Remote online methods are needed in increasing cross-cultural UX research, and they are considered practical, and may have extensive and wide scale samples suited to cross-cultural UX research. In particular, we aim to understand how an online survey fits into a cross-cultural UX research in terms of collecting qualitative feedback. As the goal is to understand online UX surveys and users in different local cultures it is our aim to gain knowledge about what kind of cultural issues affect these surveys and how they should be taken into consideration in human-centred design (HCD). We focus on studying how qualitative material such as textual and visual materials can be used in cross-cultural online UX surveys. We reflect on the practical implications of the results in a theoretical concept of cross-cultural online UX survey process. Our research has a multiple-case research design strategy and most of our case studies were executed in a real product development context with an emphasis on the qualitative research.We found that online surveys with sentence completion, diaries and storyboards are well suited to crosscultural UX research in collecting qualitative feedback. The central cross-cultural issues having implications for cross-cultural, qualitative online UX surveys concerned textual and visual materials. With regards to the textual material in collecting cross-cultural, qualitative UX feedback, we found that there are cultural differences in how respondents understand, interpret and share their experiences in an online UX survey. For example, culture has an effect on language and communication style, which in turn have an effect on the answers. Furthermore, we found that the use of the sentence completion method in an online UX survey is relatively fast and easy way to collect a large amount of cross-cultural, qualitative UX feedback regarding the different UX dimensions for product development purposes. The use of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions in the data analysis gives a better understanding of the impact of specific cultures on the results.Concerning the visual material, we found that storyboards assisted respondents in providing rich answers to a long survey because of a sound understanding of the intended situations, and ease of imagining themselves in different usage scenarios. The use of internationalised and localised storyboards allowed us to collect UX feedback, even though respondents had never used or seen the intended product. They were able to give feedback and ideas for design in the early phase of product development in requirement gathering. Using culture as a resource for design involving local users in the design process supports HCD principles. We presented the main phases in a theoretical concept of cross-cultural online UX survey process to help designers include cultural issues in the design of a cross-cultural online UX survey

An empirical examination of interdisciplinary collaboration within the practice of localisation and development of international software

Acceptance on international markets is an important selling proposition for software products and a key to new markets. The adaptation of software products for specific markets is called software localisation. Practitioner reports and research suggests that activities of developers and translators do not mesh seamlessly, leading to problems such as disproportionate cost, lack of quality, and delayed product release. Yet, there is little research on localisation as a comprehensive activity and its human factors. This thesis examines how software localisation is handled in practice, how the localisation process is integrated into development, and how software developers and localisers work individually and collaboratively on international software. The research aims to understand how localisation issues around the above-mentioned classifications of cost, quality and time issues are caused. Qualitative and quantitative data is gathered through semi-structured interviews and an online survey. The interviews focused on the individual experiences of localisation and development professionals in a range of relevant roles. The online survey measured cultural competence, attitude towards and self-efficacy in localisation, and properties of localisation projects. Interviews were conducted and analysed following Straussian Grounded Theory. The survey was statistically analysed to test a number of hypotheses regarding differences between localisers and developers, as well as relationships between project properties and software quality. Results suggest gaps in knowledge, procedure and motivation between developers and translators, as well as a lack of cross-disciplinary knowledge and coordination. Further, a grounded theory of interdisciplinary collaboration in software localisation explains how collaboration strategies and conflicts reciprocally affect each other and are affected by external influences. A number of statistically significant differences between developers and localisers and the relevance of certain project properties to localisation were confirmed. The findings give new insights into interdisciplinary issues in the development of international software and suggest new ways to handle interdisciplinary collaboration in general

Dramatistic User Experience Design: The Usability Testing of an e-Government System in A Non-Western Setting

This dissertation investigates rhetorical situatedness as a factor that culturally designates users’ motives in adopting a new technology. The application of Kenneth Burke’s dramatism extends the discussion about the situation where an interaction takes place to include acting and meaning-making in Non-Western settings as contextual and situated. This expansion is essential to reinforce the understanding of how cultural contexts impact users’ motives, specifically users from Non-Western settings, to adopt a technology. The traditional Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research stresses mechanical and technical aspects between a user (agent) and a technology device (agency) in order to reduce user errors. This approach isolates the rhetorical situation of interaction in a computer interface, thus eliding the cultural situatedness by regarding the situation as something fixed, such as in a laboratory. Adding a cultural context provides a fuller picture of this interaction. Using a civic records online system called e-Lampid, which is administered by Surabaya City Government in Indonesia as a case study, I discover five elements of situatedness that contribute significantly to weave acting and meaning-making into a culturally informed interaction. User motives are shaped by internal and external situations that are collective, local, and both onsite and off. Dramatism is a tool for analysis and production that prioritizes cultural awareness. Dramatistic User Experience (UX) design offers analytical, comprehensive, and systematic perspectives on the design process. Dramatistic UX integrates three different approaches: usability testing, rhetorical awareness of situations, and needs analysis. The synergy of dramatism, user experience, and design thinking provides a holistic approach to construct a rhetorically grounded and culturally contingent user experience design

Designing Collaborative Data Collection Interfaces for Low-literate Users

Data collection applications on smartphone devices support indigenous communities in developing countries to record and preserve traditional ecological knowledge, collaboratively collect data around issues that are important to them and use these tools to subsequently identify locally-acceptable solutions with global impacts. Development of these interfaces needs to consider users’ familiarity with technology as well as their education and literacy levels. This study builds on existing HCI4D research, which is also of interest to the CSCW community, in order to develop and evaluate, for their usability and user preferences, four user interfaces with low-literate people in the UK. Our findings suggest that linear navigation structures and a tangible interface are almost equally usable and preferred when they require minimum interaction with the device. Our preliminary analysis provides a deeper insight into the design issues to inform development of smartphone-based interfaces using various interaction types and we report on our methodological challenges from carrying out HCI research with low-literate people in the UK. The findings of this paper are used to inform the experimental design of additional work that we carry out with low-literate users in Namibia