The effects of culture on performance achieved through the use of human computer interaction

  • Authors:

  • Gabrielle Ford;Helene Gelderblom

  • Affiliations:

  • School of Accounting and Finance, University of Natal -- Durban, King George V Ave, Durban, 4001, South Africa;Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, University of South Africa, P O Box 392, UNISA, 0003, South Africa

  • Venue:
  • SAICSIT '03 Proceedings of the 2003 annual research conference of the South African institute of computer scientists and information technologists on Enablement through technology
  • Year:
  • 2003

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Abstract

The user interface development process focuses on understanding users and their individual differences. These differences result from, inter alia, differences in culture. The primary goal of this research project was to determine whether Hofstede's [1991] cultural dimensions affect the performance achieved through the use of human-computer interaction. In order to achieve this goal, it was necessary to (1) identify the characteristics of the cultural dimensions; (2) identify test subjects and test interfaces displaying appropriate cultural dimensions and (3) assess the impact of these cultural dimensions on the speed, accuracy and satisfaction levels achieved by test subjects using the test interfaces to perform data collection tasks. Test subjects and website interfaces were identified in terms of the cultural dimension characteristics. The test subjects were selected based not only on their cultural dimensions, but also by controlling for user profile variables. The data resulting from the experiment was then analyzed to establish whether these dimensions had any impact on the performance achieved when using these websites. The results of the experiment did not provide sufficient evidence to conclude that any of the tested cultural dimensions affected human performance. However, the performance levels attained suggest that the usability of the interfaces was increased for all users, as a result of accommodating high uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, collectivism and high power distance characteristics into the design of the interfaces. In addition, two main categories of further research have arisen as a result of this research. The first category comprises new research questions. The second focuses on the changes that should be made to the research design used for this research effort.