Culture and Context: An Empirical Study for theDevelopment of a Framework for the Elicitation ofCultural Influence in Product UsagePia HonoldSiemens AGCorporate TechnologyInformation and CommunicationUser Interface DesignThe globalization of the economy is leading to greater diversification among usergroups. Product designers will therefore have to take account of the cultural differ-ences between these user groups. This article first defines the construct of culture withregard to human–computer interaction and presents various possible cultural influ-ences. It then considers how the concept of culture is defined in psychological theorieson human–computer interaction. This information is then used as a basis for drawingup requirements to be met by methods for recording cultural influences. Qualitativemethods seem to be particularly promising. Empirical work was carried out to identifyfactors that influence the use of products in foreign cultures. A total of 35 Indian house-holds in Bombay and New Delhi were selected for a qualitative study in which a wash-ing machine developed in Germany was used for a period of 3 weeks. From observa-tions and interviews it was possible to identify 8 factors that need to be taken intoconsideration when defining requirements in different cultures.1. INTERNATIONALIZATION AND USABILITYThe fundamental social changes in recent years can be summed up in the wordsglobalization and information society. As far as product development and specificallythe design of user interfaces are concerned, these changes have brought about agrowth in the field of application in two respects. On the one hand, the market isgrowing in geographic terms. Technical products are being used in more and morecountries at the same time, and companies are looking to develop a global sales mar-ket. On the other hand, the number of users without expertise is growing. More andmore people without specific training can or must use relatively complex technicalINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION,12(3&4), 327–345Copyright © 2000, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.Requests for reprints should be sent to Pia Honold, Siemens AG, Corporate Technology, Informationand Communication, User Interface Design, Otto-Hahn-Ring 6, 81730 Munich, Germany. E-mail:[email protected] such as PCs. Products that traditionally have been simple to operate (suchas ovens and radios) are becoming more and more difficult to use as more and morefunctions are being integrated in them. It is therefore more important than ever be-fore for technical products to be simple to use.This article focuses primarily on the geographic expansion of the field of appli-cation for products. Despite the globalization of the manufacturing process, prod-uct planning is still being carried out in most cases in highly industrializedcountries such as Germany. For global companies such as Siemens the questionarises as to whether the cultural diversity of its customers should be taken into con-sideration in the early phases of product development not only to increase cus-tomer satisfaction, but also to improve its chances of sales on the global market.The investigations described in this article are based on the notion that assump-tions about the future user groups and the future situations in which the productsare to be used should be part of the planning and design process. These assump-tions are heavily influenced by the culture in which the design engineers wereraised. Design engineers pay less heed to or have no real understanding of productrequirements that have little significance in their own cultural context. This mayweaken the bond between the product and the foreign-culture user and have a neg-ative impact on the usability and acceptance of a product. As far as the user is con-cerned, this will result in reduced efficiency, effectiveness, and satisfaction. Andfor the manufacturer this may lead to loss of market share in certain regions and as-sociated financial loss.The purpose of our investigations was to consider whether there is really aweakening of the bond between the user and the product when German productsare used outside Germany and to determine which cultural factors have to be takeninto consideration at the design stage.2. CULTURE: WHAT IT MEANS FOR HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION2.1. DefinitionsCulture—this word has so many connotations and is very difficult to pinpoint. Inview of the many different definitions of culture it would be perfectly reasonable toargue that the term is too nonspecific to lend itself to scientific investigation. How-ever, a large number of scientific works have been published that make an ex-tremely fruitful use of the concept of culture. Instead of attempting to produce ageneral definition of culture, it is more important to find a definition that serves aspecific area of research. On the basis of definitions provided by Soudijn,Hutschemaekers, and van de Vijver (1990), Hofstede (1980), Ratner (1997), Boesch(1991, 1996), Thomas (1996), and Shore (1996), we can define culture for the pur-poses of human–computer interaction as follows:• Culture defines members of a group as distinct from members of othergroupings.• Culture creates an orientation system and a field of action for these members.328 Honold• Culture manifests itself in cultural models. These may be internal cognitionsor external artifacts and institutions.• Cultural models may differ in their scope and therefore in their significanceto a culture.• Cultural models are acquired through interaction with the environment. Ac-tion and experience on the one hand and cultural models on the other affectone another through the processes of accommodation and assimilation.• Culture does not determine the behavior of individuals but it does point toprobable modes of perception, thought, and action. Culture is therefore botha structure and a process.For an investigation of the effects of specific cultures on the design and use oftechnical systems, the assumption that the cultural orientation system manifests it-self in artifacts (such as technical products) and institutions (such as an economicorganization) is a particularly important one. This then leads us to assume thatsuch a system or product does not just exhibit technical features, but also has beendeveloped on the basis of intellectual models that are implicitly carriers of specificcultural orientation systems and schemes. Of crucial