Cultural differences in smartphone user experience evaluation

Through globalization it has become increasingly important to understand how culture affects the user experience (UX) of mobile devices and services. Despite the importance of cultural factors in product design, not much research has been done to study them. Our aim was to discover cultural differences in the UX of a Smartphone with remote online sentence completion method. This paper presents the results of a remote online UX evaluation survey of a Smartphone with altogether 72 respondents from India, China, USA, UK and Denmark. The results indicate that there are cultural differences in how people experience the product and also in the way people respond to UX evaluation survey and share their experiences with the product. The results show that a remote online sentence completion survey is a relatively fast and easy way of gathering international user data, although the analysis can be challenging. The use of Hofstede's cultural dimensions in the analysis of the data gave us better understanding of the impact of specific culture on the results.

[1]  P. Honold.  Learning How to Use a Cellular Phone : Comparison Between German and Chinese Users , 2022 .

[2]  G. Hofstede.  Culture′s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nations , 2001 .

[3]  Virpi Roto,et al.  Now let's do it in practice: user experience evaluation methods in product development , 2008, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[4]  P. Jordan.  Designing Pleasurable Products: An Introduction to the New Human Factors , 2000 .

[5]  Jinwoo Kim,et al.  A qualitative cross-national study of cultural influences on mobile data service design , 2005, CHI.

[6]  Gilbert Cockton,et al.  An investigation into the use of field methods in the design and evaluation of interactive systems , 2008 .

[7]  Kumiyo Nakakoji,et al.  Impact of culture on user interface design , 1996 .

[8]  Apala Lahiri Chavan,et al.  COVER STORYThe washing machine that ate my sari---mistakes in cross-cultural design , 2009, INTR.

[9]  B. McSweeney.  Hofstede’s Model of National Cultural Differences and their Consequences: A Triumph of Faith - a Failure of Analysis , 2002 .

[10]  Anders Bruun,et al.  Let your users do the testing: a comparison of three remote asynchronous usability testing methods , 2009, CHI.

[11]  Robert Schumacher,et al.  The Handbook of Global User Research , 2009 .

[12]  HoltzblattKaren,et al.  Rapid Contextual Design , 2005 .

[13]  Elisa M. del Galdo,et al.  Culture and design , 1996 .

[14]  Michael Jones,et al.  Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology the Cultural Impact of Information Systems – through the Eyes of Hofstede – a Critical Journey , 2022 .

[15]  Marc Hassenzahl,et al.  User experience - a research agenda , 2006, Behav. Inf. Technol..

[16]  Andy Smith,et al.  Evaluation methods and cultural differences: studies across three continents , 2008, NordiCHI.

[17]  G. Hofstede,et al.  Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind , 1991 .

[18]  Gilbert Cockton,et al.  Supporting Worth Mapping with Sentence Completion , 2009, INTERACT.

[19]  Marc Hassenzahl,et al.  MARC HASSENZAHL CHAPTER 3 The Thing and I: Understanding the Relationship Between User and Product , 2003 .

[20]  Aaron Marcus,et al.  Cross-cultural user-experience design , 2013, SA '13.

[21]  Sari Kujala,et al.  Exploring Cross-Cultural UX Evaluation with the Remote Online Sentence Completion Method , 2010 .

[22]  Jan Gulliksen,et al.  Building Usability in India: Reflections from the Indo-European Systems Usability Partnership , 2005, BCS HCI.

[23]  C. Boddy,et al.  Projective techniques in Taiwan and Asia‐Pacific market research , 2007 .

[24]  Nancy Hoft.  Developing a cultural model , 1996 .

[25]  R. Keesing.  Cultural Anthropology: A Contemporary Perspective , 1997 .

[26]  Erica Johnson,et al.  Adapting User-Centered Design Methods to Design for Diverse Populations , 2009 .

[27]  Karen Holtzblatt,et al.  Rapid Contextual Design: A How-To Guide to Key Techniques for User-Centered Design , 2004, UBIQ.