article

Cultural influences on the comprehensibility of icons in mobile-computer interaction

Authors:

P. Pappachan,

M. ZiefleAuthors Info & Claims

Behaviour & Information Technology, Volume 27, Issue 4

Pages 331 - 337

https://doi.org/10.1080/01449290802228399

Published: 01 July 2008 Publication History

Abstract

Icons are often considered as language free and therefore assumed to be especially suited for inter-cultural usage. This article examines if icons within the mobile context are inter-culturally comprehensible. The study was carried out in Kerala, South India. Fifty-eight participants of a wide age range (17-75 years) volunteered to take part. The icons under study were representatives for common mobile phone functions and were partly taken from real interfaces and were partly self-created. Icons varied in their concreteness/abstractness and their visual complexity. A naming method was adopted: Participants had first to evaluate what a specific icon pictured (pictorial transparency) and, directly after, they had to indicate the icon's meaning in the context of mobile communication (semantic transparency and comprehensibility). Results showed that the comprehensibility of icons mainly depend on two major characteristics, which can be regarded as culture-unspecific. No matter which cultural background users have, the more details an icon contains and the more concrete an icon is, the more it is correctly interpreted. However, we identified also cultural influences on the comprehensibility of specific icons, showing that icon design also should consider cultural specificities.

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Cultural influences on the comprehensibility of icons in mobile-computer interaction

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Published In

Behaviour & Information Technology Volume 27, Issue 4

Work with Computing Systems WWCS 2007, Stockholm

July 2008

66 pages

ISSN:0144-929X

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Publisher

Taylor & Francis, Inc.

United States

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Published: 01 July 2008

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Windl MOrtloff AHenze NSchwind VElsweiler DKruschwitz ULudwig B(2022)Privacy at a Glance: A Process to Learn Modular Privacy Icons During Web BrowsingProceedings of the 2022 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval10.1145/3498366.3505813(102-112)Online publication date: 14-Mar-2022
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Punchoojit LHongwarittorrn N(2017)Usability Studies on Mobile User Interface Design PatternsAdvances in Human-Computer Interaction10.1155/2017/67875042017Online publication date: 1-Jan-2017
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Lazard AMackert M(2015)e-health first impressions and visual evaluationsCommunication Design Quarterly10.1145/2826972.28269753:4(25-34)Online publication date: 17-Sep-2015
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Urakami J(2014)Cross-cultural comparison of hand gestures of Japanese and Germans for tabletop systemsComputers in Human Behavior10.1016/j.chb.2014.08.01040:C(180-189)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2014
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Schröder SZiefle Mter Hofte HMulder I(2008)Making a completely icon-based menu in mobile devices to become trueProceedings of the 10th international conference on Human computer interaction with mobile devices and services10.1145/1409240.1409256(137-146)Online publication date: 2-Sep-2008
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Schröder SZiefle M(2008)Effects of Icon Concreteness and Complexity on Semantic TransparencyProceedings of the 11th international conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs10.1007/978-3-540-70540-6_12(90-97)Online publication date: 9-Jul-2008
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Abstract

References

Cited By

Index Terms

Recommendations

Age-related differences in the initial usability of mobile device icons

Intercultural user interface design-culture-centered HCI design-cross-cultural user interface design: different terminology or different approaches?

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