Meaning, The Central Issue in Cross-Cultural HCI Design

In this paper, we focus on the design of systems intended to be shared by culturally heterogeneous users (e.g., users of Computer-Supported Co-operative Work (CSCW) and Internet applications). We discuss the limitations of current approaches to designing interfaces for culturally diverse users such as intemationalisation and localisation before describing a study conducted to elicit and understand culturally determined usability problems, in which a World-Wide Web (WWW) system was evaluated. It is concluded that culturally determined usability problems converge in the understanding of representations the meanings of which are rooted in culturally specific contexts. We explain why existing approaches are inadequate for dealing with this issue. In conclusion, we outline an HCI approach, called Meaning in Mediated Action (MMA), designed to tackle this problem.