Introduction of Culture in semi-structured interviews
ABSTRACT
This essay presents initial evidence supporting the argument that cultural considerations should be included in the work of the UX designer, especially for semi-structured interviews. This paper aims to reduce the gap between cultural theory and its actual application in the design process. This gap will be addressed by introducing guidelines, tools, and overall reflections that allow designers to effectively consider Culture in their projects. This report can be seen as a theoretical base, guiding designers to adopt a cross-cultural design process. It is the key to designing successful services, experiences and products.
KEYWORDS
Cross-cultural, UX design, Intercultural, Culture and interviews, semi-structured interviews
1. INTRODUCTION
The 21st century can be described as an increasingly diverse world where cross-cultural interactions become more and more common. Therefore, user experience has become an essential element for businesses to consider, as globalisation requires a greater knowledge of how cross-cultural differences influence and shape the creation and use of digital products and services. Today's design has to be relevant to differing cultures; that is why it is essential to incorporate cross-cultural considerations into UX design.
Indeed "As services are provided, co-produced and increasingly co-designed, and value is co-created by individuals and organisations in a rapidly changing global context, the role of culture within services calls for further research" (Ostrom, Parasuraman, Bowen, Patricio & Voss 2015). That is why today's designers' challenge is to consider cultural differences to meet users' expectations (about usability, experience and attraction).
As a human-centred discipline, UX design focuses on capturing users' needs, mental models, experiences, and desires (12). Since cultural factors necessarily influence human behaviour, this report explores how Culture is approached in the UX design field and aims to assist designers in including it in the design process, specifically in the case of semi-structured interviews.
In this paper, the cultural focus will be on "large cultures", which refer to national, regional or ethnic phenomena (Holliday 1999).
2. DEFINING CULTURE
2.a. Definitions of Culture
Culture, as a complex polysemous concept, admits many definitions. Some of them include: "Culture or civilization, taken in its wide ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society" (Tylor, 1871).
"For culture is the sociological term for learned behaviour: behaviour which in man is not given at birth, which is not determined by his germ cells as is the behaviour of wasps or the social ants, but must be learned anew from grown people by each new generation" (Benedict, 1932)
"Culture, is the mechanism that allows to select an attitude, an interpretation, a solution as the one that makes sense "de facto", when facing a situation (decision, relationship, emotion...)" (Prime, 2001).
In short, Culture can be defined as a learned dynamic system, a collective phenomenon, that is influenced by external factors and shared by all members of one society.
Different metaphors circulate in the literature on intercultural issues. They highlight the existence, in each culture, of more or less visible areas of which we are more or less aware. The best known metaphor is the one of the iceberg: it has an easily visible part (including behaviours, social codes, dress, food, language, etc.) and an immersed part (that represents values, ways of thinking, spirituality, etc.).
Generally, misunderstandings arise from that not everything is visible in the culture of the other (when the tip of the iceberg of one is evaluated from the submerged part of the other, and vice versa).
2.b. Cultural dimensions
Cultures can also be defined by cultural dimensions. Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions’ theory is one of the main cultural theories developed today. These dimensions are a framework used to understand cultural differences across countries. They represent independent characteristics that describe a culture’s preferences to answer basic problems common to all societies. Hofstede detected five areas ("dimensions") where national cultures differ:
• Power-distance: the extent to which people accept inequality in wealth, decision-making and hierarchy at work.
• Collectivism and individualism: the social bond is stronger or weaker.
• Masculinity and femininity: whether societies cherish "masculine" (competition, material success) or "feminine" (quality of life) values.
• Uncertainty avoidance: the extent to which people can live with ambiguity and uncertainty, accept "difference" and take risks.
• Long-term and short-term orientation: perseverance and saving (Confucian values) as opposed to past orientation.
The advantage of this theory is that it is based on data. So even though Culture can seem like a very intuitive and complex concept to grasp, Hofstede theory provides designers concrete data to compare cultures. Nevertheless, Hofstede notes that cultural relativism is necessary when looking at this model. The aim is to present general tendencies, values and traits of a culture.
3. EXAMPLES OF INTERCULTURALITY
There is a significant difference between being aware of Culture and understanding Culture. By knowing the differences and elements specific to cultures, designers can measure the differences and similarities of user experiences. For instance, designers must consider cross-cultural communication to better prepare workshops beforehand, have more clues on how to lead a specific workshop and perceive what participants might be expecting from the dialogue and environment. The example below illustrates how some countries’ communication patterns look and their expectations regarding "opening a meeting":
A specific example regarding Chinese culture will be detailed below because it might be one of the most complex cultures for European designers to grasp (as one of the furthest and most different from today's Western Culture) (18).
Through their study on Chinese mourning, Sio-Wa Ho and Sean E. Brotherson (7) help readers to understand Chinese's communication hidden rules better. The Chinese tend to have an "insider effect" in their communication styles. They talk more to people with whom they already have an established relationship (family and friends). This study also cautions and indicates that culturally sensitive interventions must be implemented. Indeed, researchers studying a rarely discussed topic between Chinese can easily be seen as outsiders, making it more difficult to obtain information. That is to say, researchers must understand and appreciate the attitudes and behaviours of the Chinese people and not base them on an ideal or an established model of Western practices.
Besides, the vision of design, as known, is a fairly western-centred vision, which does not help to understand all uses and customs (12). In a more interface-oriented way, understanding differences is understanding that the connotation of the same image or colour can be radically different from one country to another. Therefore, it is advisable to carefully choose the design to be used and test their interpretation with users in the target countries (12). Indeed, designing the international version of a digital interface is not only translating the text and arranging the interface according to the writing direction. A methodological approach must make it possible to ensure that the application will actually be usable in the target country according to local cultural constraints (12).
As the web becomes more and more the space of expression and representation of cultural models: ''Designers of information visualization and user interfaces must take account of culture in the design of metaphors, mental models, navigation, interaction, and appearance. Culture models define dimensions of difference and similarity among groups of people regarding signs, rituals, heroes/heroines, and values.'' (2).
4. PROBLEM DEFINITION
As seen in today’s literature, Culture does not seem to be an important consideration in the UX field. "The field of UX design misses effective tools that support a systematic approach to consider cultural differences in design processes and faces the challenge to incorporate such tools in organisation frameworks." (9).
Because of a lack of cultural knowledge and awareness, it is common for designers to take Culture for granted or even ignore it in their design process (10). Furthermore, designers must keep in mind that cultural differences potentially affect UX and must not generalise UX methods. "It is necessary when using an instrument developed in another country to investigate whether the UX assumptions underlying the scales are applicable to the population under study. […] the generalisability of studies and findings across different cultural backgrounds should only be done with greatest care." (10).
The problem is when cultural inexperienced people work in international environments, they usually approach these "cross-cultural encounters" in one of the two ways: "Either one is not aware of or not interested in managing cultural differences or one just accepts the typical stereotypes - which everyone knows about - and assumes this would be enough to work with." (8). Furthermore, the construction of one's thoughts inevitably depend on personal cultural norms. Thus, designers must keep in mind that their personal logic is certainly not universal and must detach themselves from their own Culture.
5. CULTURE AND SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
Aiming to demonstrate that cultural research helps designers to select and adapt the best design tools and methods to use, this paper specifically addresses the case of semi-structured interviews.
The focus on semi-structured interviews is beneficial for this paper because it is a workshop based on dialogue with users that admits prior preparation. Semi-structured interviews have some predefined questions but allow the interviewer to improvise and go deeper in the interview. The interviewer does not follow a set of questions and ask more open questions to give more freedom to the discussion. Moreover, user interview is a method of interviews, leading to a better understanding of participants and their behaviour.
If the researcher fails to recognise these cultural barriers, the designed experience will not fit users' needs nor resonate with them. Then, the question is how to avoid these cultural gaps, mistakes and biases in the case of semi-structured interviews?
In the context of this paper, it is unfeasible to explore the actual efficacy of semi-structured interviews in a cross-cultural context, because of several constraints such as manpower, time and the quality of the sample. The aim is instead to try to offer a possible line of approach and key ideas to help future UX researchers to consider most intercultural aspects.
6. CASE STUDY
In order to further clarify the potential of cultural consideration in semi-structured interviews, a case study will be described and taken as an example.
The case study involves a Danish music online platform called Musikundervisning.dk that connects music teachers with prospective students through their digital platform. The task given by More Music Technologies (MMT), the company in charge of the website, was to improve or propose a new service addition to the platform. The problem statement was the following: "How can users be enabled to meet their motivational goals in learning music through increasing user engagement?". The next three headers will focus on how cultural aspects could have been integrated into the case study.
I. Pre-project & project team
The team consisted of five designers: two Polish, one Luxembourgish, one Danish and one French. A good starting point would have been to state the already existing cultural differences within the team itself, looking at Hofstede dimensions model described below:
As illustrated in the model, significant gaps exist between the members’ culture. That is to say, the behaviour of each team member is very likely to vary during the different stages of the case study. A multicultural group is a place of expression of the social and cultural characteristics of the various nationalities that compose it. Such differences can foster creativity and innovation, but cultural diversity alone can greatly complicate the group dynamics.
Therefore, the best way to resolve potential misunderstandings and miscommunications within an intercultural team is to raise awareness, educate and inform members about cultural subtleties (This part will be further developed in the Discussion).
II. Discover phase
a. Cultural research
No cultural research was conducted in this project. The project team never took cultural factors into consideration in the Discover phase, but it could have been possible and of great use for the semi- structured interviews. It would have allowed the team to tackle the problem statement, helping users reach their motivational goals and MMT increase users engagement.
To begin with, an in situ analysis of Danish users would make it possible to understand the specific constraints of the country and to better target the interface to users. Indeed, the team could have led research regarding Danish culture, as the online platform is exclusively in danish, and the vast majority of users come from Denmark. It would have helped build a cultural profile of the primary user and, therefore, understand its relationship to time, space, religion, work and others. In addition, it is highly beneficial for different stages of the project, such as building the interview questions, reacting during the interview, and analysing, as cultural environment and frameworks influence the appropriation of interfaces.
Analysing Hofstede’s dimensions for Denmark, three of them stand out from having the smallest scores out of a hundred:
• Power distance (score of 18): Danes tend not to take the lead and are used to flat hierarchy. They prefer an informal work environment involving communication where everyone knows each other’s names.
• Masculinity (score of 16): work and life balance are crucial to Danish people, who favour their free time and flexible work schedule.
• Uncertainty avoidance (score of 23): for Danish people, structure and regularity in their professional lives are not necessary. They are pretty comfortable with plans changing overnight.
The previous introduction of the Hofstede’s model is a starting point of the very large number of topics that could have been researched by the team in the research phase to then successfully approach the project. For instance, the team could have researched Danish relationships to music, to online learning and communities.
b. Preparing and conducting interviews
The purpose of the semi-structured individual interviews is to identify participants' perceptions and expectations of their musical practices and their relationship to the platform. The type of semi- directive interview was chosen to evoke key themes while benefiting from a certain freedom and an openness to discussion about other themes if the participant felt the need.
Interviews were prepared in advance and are composed of previously written questions about demographics, experience and opinion of the website, motivation and social aspects of the platform. The questions were different if the participant was a teacher or a student. The interviews were conducted online and lasted approximately one hour.
The Hofstede’s model described above already gives the first ideas to successfully plan a semi- structured interview with Danish users. It is possible to make the following assumptions: a Danish participant would prefer a casual interview environment with no establishment of hierarchy nor exaggerated politeness and would not mind being called by their name. As Danes seem to value their free time, they might have experience using other services and therefore could provide valuable feedback comparing their other personal experiences. Classes cancellation or change of teacher that can sometimes happen on the platform might not be a problematic aspect to Danish people.
The interviews were conducted in English, but not taking languages into account in interviews can also influence answers and results. In order to avoid biasing the results through difficulties of interpretation or cultural misunderstandings, it is advisable to conduct the interview with a local team member if possible (3).
That is why, for an interview with a Danish speaker, it could have been a good idea to let the Danish team member lead the interview in Danish (Considerations are still to be taken, knowing that the work of translation and transcription will take longer and that the other team members will not be able to understand the course of the interview and will not have the ability to add valuable content).
III. Define phase - Result analysis & interpretation
The interviews framing insights process requires to know how to decode and analyse results. For the case study, all interviews' results were compiled in an Excel sheet. It was divided into different columns containing participant's name, question asked and its associated answer (know as verbatim record) and the general topic to which the answer was referring. An additional step could be to add one more column about the analysis of the answer to reveal the potential hidden meaning behind a verbatim. It would be interesting to see some interpretation rather than a sum up of the answer.
To conclude, because further cultural research is needed to build properly semi-structured interview questions and extract meaningful insights from the users’ verbatim. Therefore, the Define phase is incomplete and hence lacks the content and quality the team members need to build a user-centred service.
7. DISCUSSION
When designers understand Culture, they understand more than the user’s relationship, to technology or products. Indeed, taking Culture into account reveals many advantages, it is not just about conducting better workshops.
On the one hand, it helps to get to know their team and users better through improved communication and the development of intercultural intelligence. Nowadays, many design teams are international, and cultural awareness allows one to better understand and interact with other team members (3). Being a UX designer also means developing intercultural and personal skills: Appropriating representations and expectations, recognising stereotypes and prejudices and identifying groups of belonging and reference.
On the other hand, while cultural research helps with the UX process, the UX process also helps with cultural research. UX methods help to gain cultural insight, as it is by conducting them that it is possible to obtain cultural knowledge. Undoubtedly, "Standard service design tools and methods (such as interviews, research-based personas, customer journey) were believed to be applicable for gaining cultural insights." (3). Not forgetting that, to validate cross-cultural hypotheses, it is necessary to test as much as possible in real conditions. Testing is the only way to ensure the process is heading in the right direction and admits a cultural sensitivity. The figure below highlights how cultural research can be implemented within the Double Diamond model:
Additionally, cultural factors affecting web content processes can be further developed, as the case study is based on a web interface. Culture dramatically influences how individuals organise information and respond to stimulations that they are used to seeing in their cultural environment. Users respond faster to questions when using web content created by designers from their own culture (12). Hence, knowledge of cultural styles is necessary to improve user experience and online communication.
The goal is for users to control their online activity by behaving based on habits (an unconscious control of activity). And these automatisms will only form if the service corresponds to the "expectations" of the different cultural areas. As a summary, the table below compiles recommendations and guidelines for designers to follow to adopt a cross-cultural design process.
The order of use of the tools depicted above in the four phases of the Double Diamond may vary depending on the design project and its objectives.
8. LIMITATIONS
Cultural dimensions as a tool should not be applied without critical thinking and not be taken as universal solutions to various cross-cultural differences. It is crucial to keep in mind that everyone have their own unique cultural layers and that someone’s cultural profile will not necessarily fit the theories about cultures, "each manifestation is rather a tendency than an absolute value." (9).
Nevertheless, cultural differences should be used as practical tool to gain knowledge. But "More research is needed to investigate in detail the applicability of various user research methods. However, researchers should consider cultural differences when developing methods and instruments for cross-cultural user testing." (10). As most designers tend to not address cultural factors in their work, or at least find it difficult (3). The main reason why cultural factors are challenging to take into account could be explained by how time-consuming and by extent expensive this can turn out: "The development of cross-cultural and area studies requires a large mass of readily available, organized cultural information; conventional sources of such information are widely scattered and often inaccessible, and often too expensive to assemble and utilize effectively." (4).
CONCLUSION
This paper aims to contribute to close cultural gaps in the case study by proposing methods and tools that have been effectively used in previous research and projects.
Designers’ knowledge of cultural styles is necessary to improve user experience and online communication. Cognitive style influences user behaviour; it determines habits of perception, thinking, memory and problem solving. It is important to build services that are relevant, homecoming and familiar (13).
However, the methodology emerging from this paper is far from being complete. This is only the very first step to support a culture sensitive approach into the design process.
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