Designing for cultural diversity
Girish V. Prabhu and Dan Harel
Eastman Kodak Company
Rochester,
NY14650-1916, U.S.A.
ABSTRACT
Products and software developed for sale in multinational markets are most successful when they appropriately accommodate culture and language. The design of products may be either internationalized (based on features that are culture-neutral), or localized (based on features tailored to regional and local markets). Different levels of localization, no localization, translation only, to cultural localization, may be applied depending upon the application type and the net return on efforts. Cultural localization is successful only when a detailed understanding of the specific culture is available to the designer. This poster describes a methodology based on cultural anthropology, used at Eastman Kodak Company to study and understand users' needs and preferences for internationalized versus completely localized digital imaging products, and to design products and software that are efficiently and successfully localized to "speak the universal language of photography".
KEYWORDS:
Localization, Cultural localization, Japanese and Chinese design
INTRODUCTION
Eastman Kodak Company as a global company serves customers in continents comprised of Asia, Africa, Middle East, Latin America, Europe (Western and Eastern Europe), and North America (United States and Canada). Our customers, therefore, come from different countries, speak different languages, have different cultures, and have different buying habits. These elements pose unique challenges not only to marketing organizations, but also to product developmentorganizations. Products marketed outside of the US succeed when they accommodate culture and language appropriately. Culturally targeted design solutions contribute to a competitive advantage, a stronger brand recognition, and an increase in sales in regions we serve.
With this in mind, the Human Factors lab and the Strategic Design and Usability group of Eastman Kodak Company evaluated culture-specific user preferences for overall product design. Our research was conducted from a sociocultural perspective and findings include insight into, or recognition of the local social fabric, attitudes and behaviors, perceptions, beliefs, history, art, architecture, etc. The scope included public access kiosks, in-home imaging, and desktop software. The objective was to research product design and graphical user interface design solutions for issues affecting internationalization(applying design features that are culture-free), and localization (customizing designs for regional and local markets) of Kodak products and software services. The outcome of this research are cultural characteristics and product appearance and usability objectives that will be used by our designers to develop digital imaging solutions that communicate respect and consideration for different target cultures, delivers in product appearance and ensures ease of use.
METHODOLOGY
Cultural localization research utilized anthropological research methods. Cultural information was collected both from etic and emic perspectives. The overall plan for the research was as follows:
Ethnographic research
*Country-specific preferences for product appearance and user interface design
from the etic (insiders) viewpoint were compiled for potential imaging users.
*Existing traditional and digital imaging products and software was benchmarked
to understand user preferences.
Cultural characteristics
*Based on the identified etic and emic perspectives, cultural characteristics were
developed for these countries.
Product appearance and user interface design appearance requirements
*Based on the cultural characteristics product appearance and user interface
design appearance qualities were developed for these countries.
*The findings from the emic and etic view were combined to develop overall
product appearance and user interface design characteristics for each country. Validation research
*Prototypes of suitable products for each country were developed. The North
American baseline prototype for each country was translated.
*These localized prototypes were evaluated against the localized North American
prototype in the specific countries through focus groups.
Develop guidelines
*Based on the research the product design and UI design guidelines were refined. The existing Kodak consumer segmentation was not used in this research because those segmentation were based on US centric data and was thought as inappropriate for the Asian cultures. The research specifically targeted business, home, professional and education-related users with different levels of familiarity with digital technology. The research recruited equal numbers of men and women. The age of the participants for the ethnographic study ranged between 14 to 55 years, whereas validation research was done using equal number ofmen and women in the age range of 26 to 44 years.
CONCLUSIONS
Research into cultural preferences has broadened our appreciation for the importance and complexity of localized product design for Kodak products for Japan and China. Our research has indicated how elements such as symbology, field formatting, color, interaction styles, screen layout, and typography affects successful product interface localization.
REFERENCES
Fernandes, T. (1995) Global Interface Design: A Guide to Designing International
User Interfaces, AP Professional, Boston, MA.
Day, D. (1996) Cultural bases of interface acceptance: Foundations. People and
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Computer Interaction Conference, 20-23 August, Imperial College, London,
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Zieglar, V. (personal communication) unpublished data.
