Cultural Usability

October 19, NordiCHI 2008 Lund, Sweden. We have a pre-conference workshop combined with HWID (Human Work Interaction Design) IFIP TC WG 13.6 on Sunday. Deadline for submission of position papers is September 1. Those interested in HWID and Cultural Usability are welcome. CfP see here.

July 20-25, International Congress of Psychology, ICP 2008, Berlin, Germany. We have Symposium on Psychological perspectives on cultural usability and human computer interaction, Room 23, Friday, 25 July 2008, 08:00 - 10:00 h.

April 6, CHI2008 Florence, Italy.We have meeting in the HWID (Human Work Interaction Design) IFIP TC WG 13.6 Sunday evening from 6pm and onwards. Those interested in HWID and Cultural Usability are welcome. Send an email to tc.inf@cbs.dk.

July 25 - 27, HCI International 2007 in Beijing (website)
We have got our session accepted at HCI international 2007 so we can meet each other in Beijing 2007. More info to come in a separate mail. However, please set aside not only time for participation in the conference July 25-27 but also Saturday July 28 as Xianghong and I plan a full day cultural usability project meeting on that day for all of you, please.

Inspirering downloads available:

Comparing User and Software Information Structures for Compatibility by Thomas Plocher & Torkil Clemmensen.

Differences in Task Descriptions in the Think Aloud Test by Lene Nielsen & Sameer Chavan

Analyzing non-verbal cues in Usability Evaluation Tests by Pradeep Yammiyavar, Torkil Clemmensen and Jyoti Kumar

Cultural Usability Tests - How Usability Tests Are Not the Same All over the World by Torkil Clemmensen, Qingxin Shi, Jyoti Kumar, Huiyang Li, Xiangbong Sun & Pradeep Yammiyavar

The Cultural Usability (CULTUSAB) Project: Studies of Cultural Models in Psycological Usability Evaluation Methods by Torkil Clemmensen and Tom Plocher

HCI and SE - The Cultures of the Professions by Anirudha Joshi

Tracing cognitive processes for usability evaluation: A cross Cultural Mind Tape study by Jyoti Kumar, Janni Nielsen & Pradeep Yammiyavar

Relationship Model in Cultural Usability Testing by Qingxin Shi and Torkil Clemmensen

Usability Constructs: A Cross-Cultural Study of How Users and Developers Experience Their Use of Information Systems by Morten Hertzum, Torkil Clemmensen, Kasper Hornbæk, Jyoti Kumar, Qingxin Shi and Pradeep Yammiyavar

Language issues in cross cultural usability testing: a pilot study in China by Xianghong Sun and Qingxin Shin

NEWS

New PhD Student
Per September 1. 2006 Qingxin Shi has started as a PhD student at the Dept of Informatics, CSB, with Torkil Clemmensen as supervisor and prof. Kan Zhang, CAS, as co-supervisor. I am very happy that this has been possible and expects interesting research from the experiments Qingxin plans to carry out.

New Advisors
In December 2006, the project got two new advisors:

Dr. Sudhanshu Rai, CBS, who is going to defend his PhD at CBS on January 26, has studied system development teams in the Indian context. He has extensive knowledge about Euro India relations and the possibilities and challenges for cross cultural research, which he will share with the Cultural Usability project. In particular, Dr. Rai will provide advice in relation to the end-conference of the project which is to be held in Denmark in 2008 or 2009.
Apala Lahiri Chavan, MA, MSc, CUA. As Vice President, Asia, Human Factors International, Apala is one of the world's leaders in cross cultural design. She has lead hundreds of projects including expert reviews, structural design, localization, standards, and detailed design. In December 2006 Apala gave a speech in Beijing at the UPA about strategies that may ensure that the cost effectiveness of one global design can be combined with the cultural differences that local users need. Apala plans to be present at HCI international 2007 in Beijing and I hope she will be able to attend our session and project meetings there to discuss the project findings of the studies of cross cultural UEMs.

Field studies, autumn 2006
In the autumn of 2006, field studies have been carried out in Denmark, India and China.

We have studied current practice of Think Aloud Usability Evaluation Methods in companies that develop software to the local market. In Denmark we had one full day observation of a real test with one moderator and three test users in Snitker & Co, and plan to do more studies. In India we had four full days in HFI with four moderators and four test users of a think aloud test exercise. In China we observed one Think aloud session in each of five companies: Baidu (real test), Siemens, Motorola, User Centric (exercises) and an anonymous company (real test). We did field observation with video cameras of usability test sessions and afterwards interviewed the evaluators (moderators) and the test users. We looked at the relation between the moderator and test user, the gesture communication, the task presentation and the language issues and more. In India, Jyoti Kumar furthermore did some data collection using eye movement recorders of product semantics in the cross cultural perspective.

We are still in the process of doing Repertory Grid interviews with software developers, end users and HCI professionals in all three countries.

The results of the field studies will be presented for discussion at HCI international 2007.

Links:
Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati
Symposium website - IITG
HCI International 2007 in Beijing

CALENDAR

October 2009 Cultural Usability project end conference - held in combination with HWID2009 working conference on usability in social, cultural and organizational contexts
C-DAC, Pune, India, October 7-8 2009

August 2009
IEA 2009 - World Congress on Ergonomics - Beijing (August 4-19, 2009

July 2009
HCI International 2009 San Diego

April 2009
CHI2009 Boston

December 2008
ICIS2008 Paris

November 2008
World Usability day

October 2008
NordiCHI 2008 Cultural Usability workshop, Lund, Sweden
3rd Project seminar at CBS

July 2008
ICP2008 Cultural usability symposium, Berlin

April 2008
CHI 2008 Florence

November 2007
DHRS2007 Copenhagen

November 2007
World usability day Pune

July 2007
HCI International in Beijing
2nd Project seminar at CAS

May 2007
Sigchi.dk Interaction design day, Copenhagen

May 2006
Indo-Europe HCI Seminar in ITG
1st project seminar at IITG