Introduction
Design is the language of contemporary sustainable problem-solving. While we are able to solve the challenges that the natural world poses to us by creating ways to subvert or eliminate aspects that may be inconvenient to our rise as the dominant species on this planet. We managed it through the wiles of our intellect, and with it we stuck with what worked. Steel and swords, pen and paper, gears and machines: all of them are predicated on the eternal cycle of finding the best possible solution, applying it, improving it, and abandoning it once the next best thing comes up. Within the realm of human experience, thought and engagement, depend on the specificity of interaction and interpretation. Culture, as a socially enforced system of signs and meanings, inevitably conditions us to specific practices that shape our interpretation of the world, as well as the way we design solutions for others. In particular, the technological mediation offered by human–computer interaction prompts the specialization of interaction models determined by specific user interaction models, as well as the culturally informed expectations1 that follow these. The conceptual categories used in Western media and communication are transferrable onto other cultural contexts, but the way that these are used and interpreted differs.
The role of culture in interactionhas been debated and discussed in different quadrants and largely has been relegated to a secondary role in HCI research in recent years, after a swell of interest in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This is partly due to the haziness of the monolithic and hard-to-grasp concept of culture, which is hard to quantify and standardize in a world with so many streams of communication and contamination between nations. This book treats cross-cultural research and design as an inclusive practice, and rather than defining culture, I will be focusing much more on the differing practices and preferences of local groups rather than adopting a prescriptive approach to design. This is more akin to a practice of universal design where rather than designing for all at once, design should address the needs of the few, delivering solutions and optimizations that match the actual requirements of these groups. In literature regarding human–computer interaction, it is often assumed that universal design and cognitive perception factors are culturally neutral, and therefore can be successfully replicated between different cultures. A design which may appear visually appealing or even desirable in Germany can be applied and used appealingly by Arabic users. Apart from the issues pertaining to web acculturation, discourse dominance, and colonialist voices that effectively condition the perception of good aesthetics in the target cultures, the impact of culture on web interpretation and navigation is wider than simply providing a functional canvas for the user to exercise its tasks. Rather than mere design templates, a user interface with the right semantic content can produce a measurable impact on the user in both task performance and emotional perception, depending on its background and context.
This area of user experience does not have a fixed name, with some baptizing it as “cultural UX” or “localized UX”. The reason for the “universal UX” present in this book’s title is to point out the need for personalization. When there is a single theme of “user experience for all”, the need to bring the area closer to the more remote audiences and designers at the outer rim of Western influence is more essential than ever. Ignoring these groups implies missing on an audience of billions, and the rich diversity that is at the heart of each of these groups. Globalizing user experience implies user research and deep market knowledge in order to inform design accurately. Localization is the additional process of achieving a proper local version of a website, is understood as the process of adapting and transcreating primarily linguistic content into a target language and culture. In the localization industry, the process is often understood as the simpler product of translation, which aims at producing a text equivalent of the original source. Often, this source is in English, and as any language, it already carries its own set of cultural markers and linguistic expectations. Content submitted to a process of adaptation already carries a semiotic weight that cannot be easily shrugged off. Analyzing the specificities of the human perception and intellect in a cultural framework in the context of digital interaction is the main purpose of this book, and the importance of the case studies and techniques showcased within is connected to the awareness of the need to include diversity and variability, both individual and social.
I would like to thank all of the contributors and collaborators that made this book possible: Paige Williams* at Microsoft, Aurélien Rigart and the good folks at IT Consultis in Shanghai, Dr Masaaki Kurosu, Tetsuzo Nakamura, Sergio Nouvel of Continuum, Alvaro Susena, Stefanie Kegel and Jennifer Moss at The Geekettez, Giovanni Moraja, Saravjit Rihal, Paulette Comrie, Radu Marcoci, Stefan Bittner, Lindsay Jernigan, Jacob Creech, Juan Pablo Manson, Pablo @ Celerative, Santiago Bustelo, Tommaso Martucci, Lorenzo Franchini, Melina Alves, everybody at MING Labs, and Denny Huang and the user researchers at Tang Consulting. Special thanks to the Moyse family for being who they are. Apologies to any who are not included, and rest assured your contribution is valued beyond words.