By

Ather Nawaz

Department of IT Management, Copenhagen Business School (CBS)

18 Dec. 2013

Website User Experience: A cross-cultural study of the relation between users’ cognitive

style,context of use, and the information architecture of local websites

Agenda

• Background • Research questions• Theoretical focus• Philosophy of science • Empirical studies• Results• Implications

Outline

Background

• Access to the information through websites

• Globalization practices vs. Localization practices- Cultural markers

• Users access information in different ways- Localize software through cultural-user interface (Yeo 1996)

Background

Overview of webpages

Department of IT Management

• Cognitive style refers to the different ways in which people think about and remember information.

• Information architecture (IA) refers to the structure of the website or wireframes of websites.

• The context of use refers to the characteristics of intended users, the tasks users perform, tools users use and the environment in which users use the system.

• User Experience (UX) refers to a person’s perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system or service

DefinitionsDefinitions

To what degree are users’ cognitive styles and contexts of use aligned with the information architecture of a local website, and how does the (lack of) alignment shape the UX?

Research Question

Research sub-questions

1. Which issues, related to websites and types of websites, are prominent in website UX research done in Asia?

2. How do local users’ cognitive styles relate to their context of use when using local websites?

3. How do local users’ cognitive styles and context of use relate to the information architecture of local websites?

4. How do different card-sorting analyses influence the design of the information architecture of a website?

Research sub-questions

Literature studyStudy 1 and study 2 Study 3 and study 4 Card sorting analysis

Overview of research

Concept / Literature Map

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1st stage literature review

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Researchers

Choong 1997

Clemmensen 2009-2011

Hertzum 2010

Isa et a., 2007-2009

Kamppuri 2011

Vatrapu 2007

Yeo 1996-2002

HCI and Culture

Critical situationIdeal situation

Theoretical focus

SurfaceVisual design

Skeleton• Interaction Design• Navigaiton Design• Information Design

Structure• Interaction Design• Information Architecture

Scope• Functional Space• Content Requirementcture

Strategy• Site Objecteives

Scope in IA

Adapted from Rauterberg (2000)

Realistic perspective conjectural realist

Ontological standpoint

Epistemological consideration

Adapted from Van de Ven (2007)

Epistemological consideration

Stages of UX studies

• Comparative research design• Mix-methods approach

Techniques and tools– Qualitative assessment of labels– Qualitative assessment through ATLAS.ti– W-cardsort analyser– Similarity Matrix/ Dendrogram– Edit-distance

Research Design

Data collection model

Studies designParticipants, Material, and tasks

Studies designUniversity websites in Pakistan and Denmark

E-commerce websites in Pakistan and Malaysia

• Card sorting• Card-based brainstorming• Information retrieval • Usability evaluation• Retrospective interview

Activities in studies

Research question

To what degree are users’ cognitive styles and contexts of use aligned with the information architecture of a local website, and how does the (lack of) alignment shape the UX?

Users cognitive style and context of use (Malaysia and Pakistan) is loosely aligned with information architecture of local websites.

Results

Main research question

Rq1 Rq2 Rq3 Rq4

Results

Results

Literature study

Results

Study 1 – Lahore, Pakistan

Card-based brainstorming data

Card-sorting data

Results study 1-2

Information Retrieval

Depth-success

Depth- time

Results study 1-2

UX assessment - study 1 in Pakistan

UX assessment - study 2 in Denmark

Results study 1-2

Results

Study 3 - Pakistan

Study 4, Malaysia

Card-sorting activity

• Participants made on average 6.31 first level categories (SD + 2.80) and 1.59 (SD + 2.69) second level categories.

• Less than half of the participants (43%) made second level categories.

• Participants agreed 60% or more on card placement for most of the cards (35 of 41, or 85%)

Results – study 3, Pakistan

Cluster analysis

Participants agreed 60% or more on card placement for most of the cards (85% of the cards)

Results – study 3, Pakistan

Language fluency

Browsing webpages in language(es)

Results – study 3, Pakistan

Card-sorting activity

• Participants made on average 6.03 first level categories (SD + 2.40) and 4.76 (SD + 5.24) second level categories.

• More than half of the participants (55%) made second level categories.

• Participants agreed 60% or more on card placement for most of the cards (33of 37, or 89%)

Results – Study 4, Malaysia

Cluster analysis

Participants agreed 60% or more on card placement for most of the cards (89% of the cards)

Results – Study 4, Malaysia

Language fluency Results – Study 4, Malaysia

Browsing webpages in language(es)

Results

Best merger method Actual merger method

Card sorting Analysis

in Relation to my concept definition

• Cognitive styles and context of use is closely aligned, and it varies largely in Pakistan and Malaysia

• The loose alignment between context of use and cognitive style in Pakistan and Malaysia results in lower UX

• The IA of websites should be localized due to loose alignment between cognitive style and context of use

Finding

in Relation to literature in HCI and culture

• UX should be re-interpreted from local perspective ( Smith et al., 2007, Clemmensen 2009)

• Users cultural background effects on the usability of system ( Yeo, 1998, Choong 1997)

• UX may take different meaning depending upon the users cultural background (Hertzum, 2010)

• The IA of websites should be localized due to loose alignment between cognitive style and context of use ( Isa et al., 2007-2009)

Finding

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• Genre of websites

• Quality measure of websites

• Limited use of e-commerce websites

• Amounts of produces and information

• Difficulty in group comparison

• Limitations in using Edit distance

Limitations

Thank you

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Drafts

Nawaz, A. & Clemmensen, T. Issue with comparative local cases for website structures [AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction]Nawaz, A. A Comparison of Card-sorting Analysis Methods. Submitted to Asia- Pacific CHI (APCHI2012)Nawaz, A., & Clemmensen, T. Website usability in Asia. Submitted to special issue on local and indigenous HCI @ IJHCINawaz, A. (2012). Is It Culture or Is It Learning? A Conceptual Framework of Information Literacy and Flow in relation to Websites’ Information Architecture. Paper presented at 4th ACM International Conference on Intercultural Collaboration, Bengaluru, India, March 21-23.Nawaz, A. (2011). Evaluation of Information Classification on Websites and Impact of Culture: A Cross Country Comparison of Information Classification. Paper presented at 13th IFIP TC 13 International Conference ( INTERACT), Lisbon, Portugal, September 5-9.Nawaz, A., Clemmensen, T., Hertzum, M. (2011). Information Classification on University Websites: A Cross-Country Card Sort Study. Paper presented at 34th IRIS2011, Turku, Finland, August 16-19.Nawaz, A. (2010). Information architecture of websites and the impact of ‘language and culture’ on the design and structure websites. Paper presented at 3rd ACM International Conference on Intercultural Collaboration, Copenhagen, Denmark, August 19-20.Nawaz, A. and T. Clemmensen (2010). Using card sorting to explore collectivism in students’ approaches on a university website. Paper presented at 11th Danish HCI Research Symposium, Copenhagen, Denmark, November 23

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Background

Theoratical

Approach

Data Colleciton

Results

for researchers- Focus of research should be on different variety of domains of

websites

- Website UX should be re-interpreted according to to users

cognitive style, and context of use

- Website IA do vary on the basis of users background

for practitioners- The information structure of the websites should be localized to

accommodate users cognitive style and context of use

- Methodological issues in card-sorting studies

Implication