Cross-Cultural Study indicates one Limit of Metaphor in Design

Researchers at The Software Usability Research Laboratory at Wichita State University have conducted a study into the generalisability of a home metaphor used in the Tide.com Stain Detective (Nelson & Hibner, 2003) to middle-class Indian females. The stain detective was developed with American women based on a card sorting activity. A similar card sorting activity was conducted with six Indian females. Results showed that the Indian participants grouped the stains by the amount of work that was required to remove it, rather than by the location where it occurred.

'In the post-experiment interview, participants were asked if they could group the stains based on location of occurrence in the house. None of the participants felt comfortable using a house metaphor. ... Participants were also able to list a variety of stains commonly encountered in India that were not presented (e.g., mango, tumeric, henna).'

The study concludes that care must be taken in website design when metaphors are used as the primary means of interaction. The major question raised by the results is to what degree the lack of congruity between the house metaphor and the removal-difficulty metaphor would interfere with the actual use of the stain detective.

"Metaphors and Website Design: A Cross-Cultural Case Study of the Tide.com Stain Detective" by A. Dawn Shaikh, Barbara S. Chaparro, W. Todd Nelson, & Anirudha Joshi will be presented at the HCI-International 2005 in July.

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