Investigation into cultural design framework through national-cultural interpretation in mobile phone design

Abstract

Nowadays, in one’s life, a mobile phone has emerged as 1) a means of communication and 2) an identity icon for expressing one`s self to others. In addition, for the mobile phone design, no longer can issues of culture and usability remain separate from design, subsequently; the mobile industry is beginning to recognize the need to design for the international interface, as the significance of identity and design are increasing in the creation of a cultural foundation in globalization. Thus, usability issues must take on a cultural context; as the user behaviour and design preference have strong correlation with culture. Against the background, effective cultural guideline for heuristic evaluation is deemed needed, given the contemporary culture represented by shorter life cycle, faster change, and wider target.

Therefore, this cross-cultural comparative study sought to 1) provide an overview of cultural theories and practices which are useful to translate cultural variances into design elements, 2) reveal distinctive national-cultural inclinations among three countries including Korea, China, and Japan (KCJ) in user interface related to mobile phones through national-cultural survey, and 3) develop a comprehensive and cross-cultural GUI|UI design framework through mapping graphical user interface (GUI) design elements for the mobile phone to cultural models, while helping them to understand the Asian mobile phone market.

With respect to these objectives, pre-research revolving around an analysis of the related case study, pilot study Model and experiment concerns were studied. Afterwards, for modeling of Cultural Design Framework (CDF), experiments such as understanding national cultural inclination involving definition of cultural identity and comparison between features of KCJ were completed. Furthermore, for its validity, comparison between Cultural Design Framework and several cultural models were done, suggesting design guideline and checklist.

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