A Journey Through Cultures: Metaphors for Guiding the Design of Cross-Cultural Interactive Systems

140 Pages·2013·3.212 MB·English

by  Luciana Cardoso de Castro Salgado, Carla Faria Leitão, Clarisse Sieckenius de Souza

Human–Computer Interaction Series
Editors-in-chief
John Karat
Jean Vanderdonckt, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
Editorial Board
Simone Barbosa, PUC-Rio, Brazil
Gaëlle Calvary, LIG-University of Grenoble 1, France
John Carroll, The Pennsylvania State University, USA
Gilbert Cockton, Northumbria University, UK
Larry Constantine, University of Madeira, Portugal
Steven Feiner, Columbia University, USA
Peter Forbrig, Universität Rostock, Germany
Elizabeth Furtado, University of Fortaleza, Brazil
Hans Gellersen, Lancaster University, UK
Robert Jacob, Tufts University, USA
Hilary Johnson, University of Bath, UK
Gerrit Meixner, DFKI, Germany
Dianne Murray, Putting People Before Computers, UK
Kumiyo Nakakoji, University of Tokyo, Japan
Philippe Palanque, Université Paul Sabatier, France
Oscar Pastor, University of Valencia, Spain
Costin Pribeanu, National Institute for Research & Development in Informatics,
Romania
Gerd Szwillus, Universität Paderborn, Germany
Manfred Tscheligi, Center for Usability Research and Engineering, Austria
Gerrit van der Veer, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Shumin Zhai, IBM Almaden Research Center, USA
Thomas Ziegert, SAP Research CEC Darmstadt, Germany
Human-Computer Interaction is a multidisciplinary fi eld focused on human aspects of the
development of computer technology. As computer-based technology becomes increasingly
pervasive - not just in developed countries, but worldwide - the need to take a human- centered
approach in the design and development of this technology becomes ever more important. For
roughly 30 years now, researchers and practitioners in computational and behavioral sciences
have worked to identify theory and practice that in fl uences the direction of these technologies,
and this diverse work makes up the fi eld of human–computer interaction. Broadly speak-
ing it includes the study of what technology might be able to do for people and how people
might interact with the technology. In this series we present work which advances the science
and technology of developing systems which are both effective and satisfying for people in
a wide variety of contexts. The human–computer interaction series will focus on theoretical
perspectives (such as formal approaches drawn from a variety of behavioral sciences), practical
approaches (such as the techniques for effectively integrating user needs in system develop-
ment), and social issues (such as the determinants of utility, usability and acceptability).
For further volumes:
http://www.springer.com/series/6033
Luciana Cardoso de Castro Salgado
Carla Faria Leitão (cid:129) Clarisse Sieckenius de Souza
A Journey Through Cultures
Metaphors for Guiding the Design
of Cross-Cultural Interactive Systems
Luciana Cardoso de Castro Salgado Carla Faria Leitão
Department of Informatics Department of Informatics
Semiotic Engineering Research Group Semiotic Engineering Research Group
PUC-Rio PUC-Rio
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Clarisse Sieckenius de Souza
Department of Informatics
Semiotic Engineering Research Group
PUC-Rio
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
ISSN 1571-5035
ISBN 978-1-4471-4113-6 ISBN 978-1-4471-4114-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4471-4114-3
Springer London Heidelberg New York Dordrecht
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012945382
© Springer-Verlag London 2013
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To Ricardo, Daniel and Rafael
Luciana Cardoso de Castro Salgado
To So fi a and Nelson
Carla Faria Leitão
To Ingrid and Altair
Clarisse Sieckenius de Souza

Preface

This book has been written thanks to various kinds of collaboration among a number
of people. The fi rst one is the collaboration among the authors themselves. Luciana
Salgado and Clarisse de Souza started working together in 2005, when Luciana
began her M.Sc. program under Clarisse’s supervision. Carla Leitão had been work-
ing with Clarisse since 2002 and, when Luciana decided to continue her graduate
studies as a Ph.D. candidate, in 2007, Carla and Clarisse supervised her research
together. Carla, Clarisse and Luciana then formed a very special interdisciplinary
trio that already foreshadowed the path that would eventually lead to this book.
Carla is a psychologist, with a Ph.D. in Psychology and Social Construction of
Subjectivity. Clarisse is a translator and linguist, with a Ph.D. in Computational
Linguistics. Luciana has a degree in Information Systems and a Ph.D. in Informatics
and Computing, specializing in HCI. The three of them are senior members of the
Semiotic Engineering Research Group (SERG) of the Department of Informatics at
the Ponti fi cal Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio).
SERG is the home of Semiotic Engineering, a semiotic theory of HCI that has
been gaining increased interest in recent years. This is the third book internationally
published by SERG authors about Semiotic Engineering. The fi rst, with a compre-
hensive introduction to the theory by Clarisse de Souza, was published in 2005
( The Semiotic Engineering of Human-Computer Interaction , MIT Press). The sec-
ond, by Clarisse de Souza and Carla Leitão, focused speci fi cally on Semiotic
Engineering methodology and was published in 2009 ( Semiotic Engineering
Methods for Scienti fi c Research in HCI, Morgan & Claypool). The present book
presents the results of Luciana Salgado’s Ph.D. thesis and constitutes a major leap
in the theoretical basis of Semiotic Engineering. The inclusion of the cultural dimen-
sion in the scope of our studies has given us a whole new platform to think not only
about the design of cross-cultural computer systems, but also about HCI itself.
We are deeply thankful to Karin Breitman, Assistant Professor in our department
at PUC-Rio and Director of Publications for the Brazilian Computer Society. She is
the one who encouraged us to publish Luciana’s thesis as a book. She put us in
contact with Beverley Ford, at Springer, whom we would also like to thank for lead-
ing this project ahead with great professionalism, always encouraging and helping
vii
viii Preface
us carry it through. The end result owes much to the excellent editorial guidance we
had from Ben Bishop and his team while preparing this volume.
We extend our gratitude to our colleagues at SERG, past and present, whose
stimulating questions and unconditional support have brought us this far. We are
also deeply grateful to all the volunteers who participated in so many experiments
throughout the years of research behind this book.
Additionally, we must thank our colleagues, students and staff members in the
Department of Informatics at PUC-Rio for providing us the right atmosphere and
the means to do our work. We are especially indebted to the sponsors of various
sub-projects that contributed to the results reported in this book: the National
Council for Scienti fi c and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Carlos
Chagas Filho Research Foundation of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ).
Writing this book has been a major summer project for the three of us. During
this time our families and friends have gotten much less of our attention than they
deserve. They have loved and supported us all the same. Our dear families have
been the source of our strength and inspiration to conclude this book, which we
dedicate to them with all our love.
Rio de Janeiro Luciana Cardoso de Castro Salgado
Carla Faria Leitão
Clarisse Sieckenius de Souza
Contents
1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 1
1.1 On Design and HCI Design................................................................ 2
1.2 Semiotic Engineering ......................................................................... 4
1.3 Towards the Semiotic Engineering of Cross-Cultural Systems ......... 9
1.4 On the Content and Structure of This Book ....................................... 15
References ................................................................................................... 16
2 Semiotic Engineering and Culture .......................................................... 19
2.1 An Overview of Semiotic Engineering Theory ................................. 20
2.2 Definitions for Culture and Their Influence
on Semiotic Engineering .................................................................... 30
2.3 Culture-Sensitive Interaction: How Semiotic Engineering
Frames Cross-Cultural Design ........................................................... 36
References ................................................................................................... 40
3 Cultural Viewpoint Metaphors ................................................................ 43
3.1 Cultural Viewpoint Metaphors as a Top Level Frame
for Cross-Cultural HCI Design .......................................................... 44
3.1.1 The Domestic Traveler Metaphor .......................................... 47
3.1.2 The Observer at a Distance Metaphor .................................... 48
3.1.3 The Guided Tour Visitor Metaphor ........................................ 52
3.1.4 The Foreigner with Translator Metaphor ............................... 56
3.1.5 The Foreigner Without Translator Metaphor ......................... 60
References ................................................................................................... 66
4 A Case Study: Re-designing the AVIS Website ...................................... 69
4.1 Step One: Cultural Viewpoint Metaphors at Design Time ................ 72
4.1.1 Detailed Results ..................................................................... 74
4.1.2 Summarized Results ............................................................... 86
4.2 Step Two: Cultural Viewpoint Metaphors at Evaluation Time .......... 87
4.2.1 Detailed Results ..................................................................... 91
4.2.2 Summarized Results ............................................................... 99
ix
x Contents
4.3 Final Analysis and Synthesis of Results ............................................ 100
4.4 Triangulation ...................................................................................... 101
4.4.1 Evaluating FIFA Website with CVM ..................................... 102
4.4.2 Results .................................................................................... 106
4.5 Contrasting Findings from the Studies with AVIS
and FIFA Websites ............................................................................. 111
References ................................................................................................... 113
5 Final Discussion ......................................................................................... 115
References ................................................................................................... 124
Index ................................................................................................................. 127