30. PROCESS BOOK // Week 3

Favorite Quotes

"It helps to be able to quantify cultures. Importantly, this is not a way to make blanket statements about people from certain countries, but a way to clarify how groups interact with each other and the internet." - Senongo Akpem, "Cultural Factors in Web Design"

This is very true because cultural variables are not just interesting facts about the difference between high context/low context cultures. They say something important about the ways in which people of these cultures transmit and receive information, which is highly important for website design (information hierarchy, visuals, content, formal vs. informal language, etc.)

"In  times  when  interactive  systems  need  to  provide  support  for  an  ever  increasing  amount  of  material  and  make  it  available  for  local-language  populations  across  the  world,  or  even  the  emerging  multi-cultureless  of  many  countries,  the   "on-size-fits-all"   approach   is   no   longer   applicable." - Isabela Gasparini, "Vive la différence! : a survey of cultural-aware issues in HCI"

Even when the content is translated into the local language but everything else stays "one-size-fits-all", it can result in poor performance, where the user is not able to find the information he's looking for (or can, but very slowly), because his expectations are different. To increase user efficiency and effectiveness (usability), cultural differences need to be considered and incorporated into the design of HCI. The following quote about the need for localization elaborates on this idea:

"Localized  interfaces  are  supported  by  the  idea  that  the  existence    of    different    cultural    meanings    impedes    a    successful  standardization,  the  communication  between  a  sender  and  a  receiver  will  not  work  smoothly,  or  will  be  affected  negatively  when  they  belong  to  different  cultures,  as  they  rely  on  different  sets  of  values  and  meanings;  and  by  the  perception  of  products,  UI,  websites  forms  part  of  and  is  influenced  by  a  network  of  socio-cultural  variables." 

- Isabela Gasparini, "Vive la différence! : a survey of cultural-aware issues in HCI"

"The   design   of   the   user   interface   can   be   a   matter   of   preference  that  varies  from  person  to  person,  however,  we  can  find  common  preferences  that  are  deeply  rooted  in  culture,  and  research  in  this  direction  shows  that  people  considered  to  belong  the  same  cultural  group  also  perceive  and  process  information  in  similar  ways."- Isabela Gasparini, "Vive la différence! : a survey of cultural-aware issues in HCI"

It's easy to downplay the need for UI adaptation with reference to personal preference, but it becomes critical when designing for a particular culture/market, especially an unfamiliar one.  

"Although each culture has its own symbols and patterns of action, not all differences are significant [for UI design]." – Emilie Gould, “Synthesizing the Literature on Cultural Values”

It's true that not everything is important for UI design, and authenticity shouldn't be prioritized over usability. Only certain cultural values may be relevant and worth of UI adaptation. 

"We contribute to the digital divide when we have unrealistic and uncritical expectations that everyone who uses a computer must be much like us. Unfortunately, when they’re not, their reactions can become overly negative. In general, bad experiences diminish willingness to try new software." – Emilie Gould, “Synthesizing the Literature on Cultural Values”

I like this quote because it summarizes the worst assumption a UX specialist can make - believe that a product will work for any audience, based on personal belief or local testing. 

"'Meeting' new software (or a new website) invokes the same process of prediction, attribution, and uncertainty reduction that people use when meeting a stranger." – Emilie Gould, “Synthesizing the Literature on Cultural Values”

This is very true: when you start using a new product, you want it to be "friendly" and "speak your language", so you are motivated to continue your relationship with it.

Explorations

After reading “Synthesizing the Literature on Cultural Values”, which provided some culture application examples, I felt motivated to check out the Internet to find other examples of adaptation and stumbled upon this blog. The author describes different applications of cultural characteristics for different markets, highlighting her own UI design experience, covering the Dutch pragmatism, the German precision, and other cultural differences. She also provides some helpful tips that come out directly from her work.

Another blog I found has an opposing point of view. The author claims that culture does not matter much for industrial and mass-production design. His main example are cell phones that operate on the same platforms (iOS and Android) all across the globe, which look the same and provide the same options (just in different language). The same holds true for the design of appliances - kettles, toasters, rice cookers, etc. - which look and operate the same way in different countries. He claims that this standardization is very important for bringing the world together but at the same time it may diminish the richness of cultural diversity. 

I agree that appliances and other physical objects should look and work similarly because of the design affordances that allow any user and any traveler from a foreign country to be able to use them, but I don't think UI in website design should be homogenized across countries. They ways in which people read, perceive, and accept information are very different, as we have already learnt, and that can affect usability and trust (as in the “Synthesizing the Literature on Cultural Values” reading, people using new technologies is comparable to them meeting new people - if trust and ease of communication is not established during the first "meeting", the user will not feel motivated to continue the relationship with the product). 

Sketches

Exercises

1. 

The cultural comparison is based on two websites - Peking University and the University of Washington. The analysis has revealed that some characteristics match up with what is expected for these two cultural dimensions (power distance and individualism/collectivism), with minor inconsistencies. For example, information density is supposed to be high for low Power Distance and low for high Power Distance (per Gasparini, 2011), but the websites show the opposite trend.

2. Dimensions for a health-care website for immigrant communities (a set of questions for research with proposed users)

1) Power-Distance 

• Do patients want to be provided with different prescription options or should only one be picked by the doctor?
• Can patients choose their doctor? Or should they be assigned to one?
• Can patients can contact their doctors outside of work hours/distantly or can that be done only in-person?
• Do patients need to have a two-way communication with their doctor?

2) Long-Term Orientation

• How important is innovation to patients?
• How much do patients value traditional medicine?
• How important is a doctor's experience (number of years practicing) to patients?
• What do patients value more when selecting a doctor? Word of mouth or statements of achievement?

3) Individualism vs. Collectivism

• Will patients be coming to appointments alone or with their families?
• Do doctors work alone or in collaboration with other doctors/nurses?
• Do patients want to know about their doctors' outside interests, not related to work?
• How important for patients is their doctor's involvement into the life of the community?
• If an online account needs to be created, should it be created as one for the whole family, or separately for every individual in the household?
• At what age does a child become legally treated as an individual?
• What does a family and family plan/treatment mean to the patient? How big is the concept of "family" (immediate, distant, how many generations, etc.)

4) Uncertainty Avoidance

• Do patients need to know how long their appointments are going to last?
• Do patients need to have their doctor's contact information?
• Do patients need to know what the doctor's/clinic's hours are?
• Do patients want to know about all the side-effects of a prescription drug?
• Should patients be educated/helped with web navigation? 
• Should patients have an easy access to their account information and be able to change it if necessary?
• Should patients be presented with appointment/treatment costs prior to their visits?

Personal/Professional Inspirations

The readings have made me realize that besides the language and cultural dimension differences described by Hofstede and other researchers, there are more differences between nations - spatial, temporal, and contextual. The differences can't be gathered from the surface, and one really needs to dig deep, immerse oneself into the culture (or its research) to be able to put oneself into a foreigner's shoes. I love studying languages, and that's true that some aspects of a culture can be understood through the language lens (people's way of giving and getting directions, understanding and measuring time, etc.), so I'd like to start reading more about various languages. 

I also really liked reading that blog post with the international UI examples, so I figured that the best way to learn how to design for different cultures may be to learn from other researchers and designers' successful experiences - how they handled their failures, conducted additional testing, or took opportunities to redesign for better understanding. In my career, I will seek out opportunities to chat with my co-workers about their multicultural experiences in research and design. I'm sure they will be able to give helpful tips and tell insightful stories.