Usability Testing with Cultural Groups in Developing a Cell Phone Navigation System

As the use of cell phones pervades over the world, globalization of user interface (UI) design is emphasized in developing cell phones for successful business. In reality, however, it is rarely possible to design a product that satisfies all international and intercultural customers. UI designers, therefore, need to collect cross-cultural usability information in the product development process in order to: 1) determine universal and to-be-localized components, 2) avoid cultural mistakes that lead to critical miscommunication, and 3) assess the usability of cross-cultural user interfaces. As an initial exploration, this paper reports a case study in which a laboratory-based usability test was conducted with four cultural groups (West African, East European, South American, and North American) to collect multi-cultural usability information in the iterative development process of a cell phone navigation system. Details of the methodology and lessons learned are presented.