Intercultural Communication in a Global world

Mrs E.A. Draffan

Vanissa Wanick

March 2015

Plan for sessions• Intro - who we are what we have done

• Presentation

• Discussion

• Practical session - groups discussing elements of intercultural communication - individual needs, language and culture.

• Feedback

• Tea Break

• Explain framework for evaluating culturally different websites - issues arising

• Look at websites

• Feedback

• Wrap up

Global Inclusive Design for All?

The Journey

Please refer to: http://www-edc.eng.cam.ac.uk/betterdesign/process/

User Experience Design(http://www.poetpainter.com/thoughts/article/ia-summit-2009-the-fundamentals-of-experience-design-)

Ability and SkillsCompetency in ICT often learnt out of school – impacts on use in education (Thorne, 2003a) - multiplicity of devices using digital multimedia

Internet-mediated

communication

Lack clear visual cues

Reduced social context

Misinterpretation

Demographics“People don’t come preassembled but are glued together by life” (Le Doux, J. 2002)

• Everyday experiences change the way we interact – level of digital literacy expertise, age, gender, environment, culture …

percentage of populations above 65 years old by 2030 across the globe

http://sapientprivatewealthmanagement.com/media/2010/10/Demographics-Around-the-World.pdf

Language

Internet-mediated global English – Netspeak (Crystal, D. 2001)

• Informal and friendly may suit individualistic cultures but “prove disturbing for unprepared members of a collectivist culture” (O’Dowd, 2001)

o salutations,

o assertive rather than questioning,

o aggressive but apologetic. (Marcoccia, 2012) but…

• “anonymity can play a positive role in intercultural communication.” (Marcoccia, 2012) those who hesitate in f2F may communicate more when online.

CultureCulture is “essentially elusive, abstract and invisible” (Furstenberg et al., 2001)

• Low-context (text and speech) v. High-context cultures (visual cues and silence) e.g. North European v. Far Eastern and Arab (Würtz, 2005).

• Just because you are connected it does not mean you necessarily communicate enough to learn about a culture (Marcoccia, 2012) however…

• Cyberspace shares its own cultural practices within a virtual community – use English and follow the rules of netiquette? (Ersoz, 2009) but may mean you reduce cultural understanding.

WVS Cultural Map of the World

The World Value Survey Cultural Map 2005-2008 – note “Each country is positioned according to its people’s values and not its geographical location.” http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/wvs/articles/folder_published/article_base_54

High Context Cultures (HC)

JapanArab Countries

GreeceSpainItaly

EnglandFrance

North AmericaScandinavian Countries

German-speaking Countries

Low Context Cultures (LC)Source: Hall, E. and M. Hall (1990)Understanding Cultural Differences

HC x LC

Hypotheses (Würtz, 2005)http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue1/wuertz.html

1. High Context (HC) cultures will, to a higher degree than Low Context (LC) culture websites, implement strategies for assimilating human presence on their websites.

2. HC cultures are likely to use more imagery and less text than their LC counterparts.

3. The imagery chosen on HC culture websites will reflect values characteristic of HC cultures, such as family values, whereas LC culture values will be present on LC culture websites.

4. The pages making up LC websites are expected to be consistent in their layout and colour schemes, whereas pages in HC websites are expected to be diverse.

More Cultural Dimensions: Geert Hofstede

• Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, Geert Hofstede, McGraw-Hill, 1991, 1997

• Hofstede examined IBM employees in 50 countries, 1978-83

• Statistically valid data and analysis

• One limitation is that he says that each country has only one dominate culture

• However research has shown that these dimensions are still useful today.

Hofstede’s 5 Dimensions of Culture

1. Power-distance

o high power distance cultures include many hierarchical levels, autocratic leadership, and the expectation of inequality and power differences, and are affiliated with HC cultures.

o low power distance cultures are characterized by flat organization structures, consultative or participative management style, and the expectation of egalitarianism, especially evident in LC cultures.

Cultural Dimensions and Global Web UI Design (Marcus & Gould, 2000)

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=345238

High power distance: Malaysian University website.

Low power distance: Dutch Educational website.

Hofstede’s 5 Dimensions of Culture

2. Collectivism vs. individualism:

o Collectivistic cultures prioritize group welfare over the goals of the individual. Tends to reflect HC cultures

o Individualism emphasis is put on the goals and accomplishments of the individual rather than the group –relates to Low Context Cultures

Hofstede’s 5 Dimensions of Culture

3. Femininity vs. masculinity

o masculine cultures, the traditional distinctions are strongly maintained, while feminine cultures tend to collapse the distinctions and overlap gender roles (both men and women can exhibit modesty, tenderness, and a concern with both quality of life and material success.)

o Traditional masculine work goals include earnings, recognition, advancement, and challenge.

o Traditional feminine work goals include good relations with supervisors, peers, and subordinates; good living and working conditions; and employment security.

Hofstede’s 5 Dimensions of Culture

4. Uncertainty avoidance

o high uncertainty avoidance tend to have more formal rules, require longer career commitments, and focus on tactical operations rather than strategy. These cultures tend to be expressive; people talk with their hands, raise their voices, and show emotions.

o low UA cultures tend to be more informal and focus more on long-range strategic matters than day-to-day operations. These cultures tend to be less expressive and less openly anxious;

Cultural Dimensions and Global Web UI Design (Marcus & Gould, 2000)

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=345238

High UA: Sabema Airlines website from Belgium.

Low UA: British Airways website from United Kingdom.Long-

Hofstede’s 5 Dimensions of Culture

5. Long- vs. short-term time orientation

o Long-Term Orientation seemed to play an important role in Asian countries that had been influenced by Confucian philosophy over many thousands of years.

o Western countries, by contrast, were more likely to promote equal relationships, emphasize individualism, focus on treating others as you would like to be treated, and find fulfilment through creativity and self-actualization

Practical Session

Groups discussing elements of intercultural communication such as individual needs, language and culture.

Question?

Does cyberspace symbolise ‘cultural standardisation’ or

does it allow for ‘cultural variations and local

appropriation’?

Feedback

Discover

Create

Translate

Develop

Test

Localisation Framework

Cultural Context

Dimensions Appropriateness

Environment Demographics

Language Impact on Design

Translation Technical

Individual Needs Activity

Skills

Designers

LinguistsDevelopers

Visionary / User /Owner

Users

The CAKE framework

Advergames: games that carry a persuasive message

RQ: What are the effective advergames affordances for cross-cultural consumer behaviour?RQ2: How can designers build effective advergames across cultures?- Mechanics, storyline,

interface…?- A different game for each

culture?

- Findings show that players from Brazil prefer more the visual aspects of the game (characters, scenarios), if compared to British players

- The advergames in the market are usually the same, just with translation of content

What about games?

Localisation for Arabic Cultures

Practical User interfaced design• Images: Images can easily offend, especially when people are

involved and may also differ in approach to the type of image shown especially in the degrees of say violence and sexuality.

• Colours: Colour is sometimes used to convey meaning or to help us focus on part of the page, but colour has a different meaning in different cultures.

• Flow/Navigation: we look read a web page differently, we start at different points and then move our eye in different ways (some up and down across). Similarly navigation is differ not only in flow, but also what information we want to see first.

ColourColour China Japan Egypt France United

States

Red Happiness Anger Danger Death Aristocracy Danger Stop

Blue Heavens Clouds

Villainy Virtue Faith Truth

Freedom Peace

Masculine

Green Ming Dynasty Heavens

Future Youth Energy

Fertility Strength

Criminality Safety Go

Yellow Birth Wealth Power

Grace Nobility

Happiness Prosperity

Temporary Cowardice Temporary

White Death Purity Death Joy Neutrality Purity

Colours in Culture(http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/colours-in-cultures/)

Practical User interfaced design

• Text: This is not the same in all cultures in terms of character sets and the way language is used.

• Number, Dates and Time formats:

not all cultures have the same calendar

or number format.

• Metaphors/ Idioms: we often convey

a new idea using a figure of speech that is not always understood in the same way by another culture or in another language.

“Its raining cats and dogs!” French “Il pleut des cordes”, or it's raining ropes! Dutch “Het regent pijpestelen” it's raining steel pipes

Cultural AppropriatenessA way of speaking and writing? Direct English, formal and expressive Arabic, talking around a subject in Chinese and Japanese, not quite so direct in French or even Russian…

Kaplan’s models of contrastive rhetoric (1966)

• use polite terms and avoid slang or casual statements

• describe any words that may have a double meaning

• understand the use of gender as in many languages objects can be female or male rather than neuter as in the use of ‘it’

• avoid using images if you are not sure they explain your text clearly.

Need to also think about…

• Space

• Maintenance

• Linking between sites

• Contact for each version of your servicehttp://www.omniglot.com/language/articles/multilingual_websites.htm

Translation

• Commercial, crowdsourcing, volunteering and automatic

• Reverse translate!

• Have a glossary of terms to hand

• Some words simply do not work in other languages.

Technological NeedsWe have just looked at Microsoft Windows, Android and iOS(Apple) - It is important to:

o Separate resources from code.

o Use Unicode and UTF-8.

o Support string tables for each language, separate icons and images plus right to left user interface.

o Support localised keyboard shortcuts.

o Make sure keyboards and on-screen keyboards are supported for the intended languages on the target platform.

o Make sure appropriate fonts are supported.

o Allow the user to easily change the locale of the software.

Activity and EnvironmentMultiple means of representation, expression and engagement to accommodate task, setting as well as ability/skill, demographics, language and culture.

o representations to cater for individual preferences? Accessibility and Usability

Business case for time / finance, skills / knowledge One version or multiple:

o versions of the information for different regions?

o representations depending on the type of content?

o presentation depending on the technology used? Desktop, tablet, mobile etc

BBC World Wide

News from around the world

• http://eisamay.indiatimes.com/

• http://www.aljazeera.net/portal

• http://www.pravda.ru/

• http://www.4semanas.com/

• http://www.nhk.or.jp/

• http://www.xinhuanet.com/

• http://www.alithia.com.cy/

• http://www.amx.is/

• http://us.cnn.com/?hpt=ed_US

• http://www.arib.info/

McDonalds global reach• http://www.mcdonalds.de/

• http://www.mcdonalds.ru/

• http://www.mcdonalds.es

• http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome.html

• http://www.mcdonalds.co.jp/

• http://www.mcdonalds.com.cn/

• http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/home.html

• http://www.mcdonaldsindia.com/

• http://www.mcdonalds.com.ar/

• http://mcdonalds.co.za/content/index.php

Discuss websites

Your Feedback

Understanding• Cultural Nuances

o National Cultural Dimensions

o Cultural Appropriateness

• Addressing Design

• Language

o Language impact on Layout

o Translation options

• Technical Issues

• Individual Needs

http://localisation.atbar.org/

References• Furstenberg et al., (2001). Giving a virtual voice to the silent language of culture: The

CULTURA project http://llt.msu.edu/vol5num1/furstenberg• LeDoux, J. (2002). Synaptic self: How our brains become who we are. New York:

Penguin.• Thorne, S.L., (2003a). Artefacts and cultures-of-use in intercultural communication

http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/thorne• Crystal, D. (2001) Language and the Internet (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)• O’Dowd, R. (2001) In search of a truly global network: hhtp://callej.org/journal/3-

1/o_dowd.html• Marcoccia, M. (2012) The internet, intercultural communication and cultural variation.

Language and Intercultural Communication, 12:4, 353-36 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2012.722101

• Ersoz, S. (2009) Cultures in Cyberspace: Interpersonal communication in a computer-mediated environment http://maltepe.academia.edu/SelvaEesoz/Papers/563123/Cultures_in_cyberspace_interpersonal_communication_in_a_computer-mediated_Envrionment

• Würtz, E. (2005). A cross-cultural analysis of websites from high-context cultures and low-context cultures. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(1), article 13.http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue1/wuertz.html

• Usunier, J. C. (2000). International marketing. A Cultural Approach, New York.• Marcus, A., & Gould, E. W. (2000). Crosscurrents: cultural dimensions and global Web

user-interface design. interactions, 7(4), 32-46.

Thank YouE.A. Draffan

ECS Accessibility Team

http://access.ecs.soton.ac.uk

http://localisation.atbar.org/

Vanissa Wanick

PhD candidate and UX/UI designer

Games Design Hub

http://blog.soton.ac.uk/gamesdesignhub/