CHI '08: Usability and Cultural Complexity

Human Factors International (HFI) is one of the world’s largest human factors and usability consultancies, with some 250 people working in 13 different offices across the world. This puts the organisation in a strong position in terms of cross-cultural expertise, and Chief of Technical Staff, Europe and Emea, Elisa del Galdo, perfectly exemplifies HFI’s international reach and experience.

UsabilityNews caught up with Elisa at CHI to talk about international and cross-cultural testing and research. How does it all work, and where is it taking us?

FITTING THE TEST TO THE CULTURE
On a practical level, she says, the start point is HFI’s Global Usability Test Estimator – a tool which draws on a database of painstakingly acquired local knowledge and experience and enables a prospective client to estimate the costs and practicalities of tester recruitment, venue hire, administrative support and data processing in any global location. Once things are underway, the skill is to balance process consistency with cultural sensitivity to ensure the best data. Del Galdo cites her colleague, Apala Lahiri Chavan, whose ‘bollywood method’ of testing broke down cultural barriers to criticism in India by applying a melodramatic family scenario to a standard usability test. No dull ‘book a flight to Chicago’ task for these testers – instead, the role of thwarted lover, heroic rescuer or bearer of terrible secret (who needs to book a flight to Chicago to save a life, prevent a wedding or exonerate a maiden) was conferred on each participant, generating a slew of rich data on a travel website. “Gadgets and tasks mean little out of context,” Elisa says. “In different cultures, the trick is to find out what something means to someone at an emotional level.”

CULTURES WITHIN AND ACROSS CULTURES
User groups are very diverse within cultures too, says del Galdo. Electronic voting is now increasingly available to the illiterate and the innumerate in developing regions of India; grain price negotiations in deepest Africa take place over mobile phones downloading live market data. In the Middle East, tests may falter because not enough time has been spent building trust and demonstrating trustworthiness. But when this process has been observed correctly, del Galdo adds, a test session may falter because entire families turn up to 'help', complete with children, snacks, drinks and dinner invitations. It's all a question of balance, which is a surprisingly delicate and difficult thing to achieve.

And cultures crop up in unexpected ways. “Culture isn’t just about national boundaries,” continues Elisa. “People in global corporate cultures can be more alike than people of the same nationality – a Norwegian Microsoft employee may be more similar to a US Microsoft employee than to a Norwegian farmer. On the other hand, teenagers from every culture I’ve come across are remarkably similar in their outlook, aspirations and preferences.”

THE SAME BUT DIFFERENT
So is technology a unifying force across cultures – or a means of flattening unique cultural characteristics into an amorphous mass of western-style interaction? “It’s a delicate balance and the big corporations don’t always get it right,” admits Elisa. “I see the role of human factors professionals as being one of empowerment over time. We do impose a method at first – such as web interaction techniques or mobile phone usage – because we have to, but this can be done in a way which enables individual cultures to learn how to apply those techniques to their own purposes and respond positively and effectively to their own cultural pressures, such as climate, government, religion or economy.”

Will these emerging user groups be leapfrogging us soon? “Probably,” concludes del Galdo. “In terms of technology, application development, user-awareness and demand for user-centred design, we will ultimately be outstripped by much of the developing world. But how exciting is that?”

Associated Link: Human Factors International

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