Placing Culture at the Centre of Design

Proceedings of the 3rd International Engineering and Product Design Education Conference; 15-16 September 2005; Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland; pp.65-69; ISBN: 0-415-39118-0.

Towards Culture-Centred Design

Journal of Interacting with Computers (ISSN: 0953-5438); 2006; Vol. 18, Issue 4; July; pp.820-852.

This paper addresses culturally rooted factors within user interface design. The design implications of globalisation are discussed, together with the related processes of
internationalisation, localisation, ‘glocalisation’, iconisation and culturalisation, in order to establish a basis for a new approach to HCI design. The potential for a more diverse culturecentred, design-based system—‘Culture-Centred Design’ (CCD) is introduced, and a CCD process developed.
A redesigned computer interface, incorporating a consistent and culturally rooted metaphor for a Chinese user target group is discussed. A culturally specific ‘garden’ metaphor is developed and applied as an alternative to the current global ‘office’ or ‘desktop’ metaphor. A working demonstration of the interface is piloted with a group of Chinese users to assess its success in terms of interactivity, usability and cultural significance. The overall results of the first two evaluation phases have shown very positive outcomes for the use of the CCD system and Chinese garden metaphor.

Chinese web browser design utilising cultural icons

Proceedings of the 12th HCI International Conference, 22-27 July 2007; Beijing International Conference Center, Beijing, P.R. China, LNCS 4560, pp.249-258.

The Design of a Culturalised Web Browser for Chinese Users

Proceedings of the International Association of Societies of Design Research Conference, 12-15 November 2007; Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, P.R. China; ISBN: 988-99101-4-4.

Chinese web browser design utilising cultural icons

Lecture Notes in Computer Science: Usability and Internationalization. Global and Local User Interfaces (ISSN: 0302-9743); Springer Berlin: Heidelberg; Vol. 4560/2007; pp.249-258; 2007; doi: 10.1007/978-3-540-73289-1; ISBN: 978-3-540-73288-4.

This study investigates the appropriateness and effectiveness of the design of icons for a Chinese web browser. Web browser developments are outlined, together with the future potential growth of Chinese internet users. The findings of the study show that the subjects shown icons and text, had higher recognition rates, and had higher satisfaction ratings. Furthermore, some evidence points to a gender bias in favour of males in terms of recognition and females in terms of satisfaction. Future work is suggested in terms of refining the web browser icons and exploring the usability of colour and 3D effects.

Using personality type differences

Journal of Engineering Education; Issue 2, Vol. 2; pp.54-66; 2007

This paper argues for the greater use of personality type instruments such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Keirsey Temperament Sorter II (KTS II), when forming engineering design teams. Considering the importance of teamwork in all aspects of education and industry, it is surprising that few universities in the UK use personality type information when forming design teams. This has led to many courses not getting the best out of their students, and more importantly the students not getting the most out of the team-working experience. Various team formation methods are discussed and their relative strengths and weaknesses outlined. Normal personality type distributions in base populations are presented and compared with data from recent studies of engineering students, and the link between
engineering, design and creativity is discussed. The results of this study have shown that the most important of the type
preferences is the Sensing-iNtuitive (S-N) scale, with its proven link to creativity and learning styles. It is concluded that
both engineers and designers have much in common, and a methodology of using personality type choice sets to select
and form engineering design teams is proposed.

Towards Culture-Centred Design - A metaphor in Human Computer Interaction

Proceedings of the HCI International 2005 and its affiliated Conferences; Vol. 10; 22-27 July; Las Vegas, USA; ISBN: 0-8058-5807-5.

Chinese Users’ Preference for Web Browser Icons

2009; Design Principles and Practice - An International Journal (ISSN 1833-1874); Vol. 3; Issue 1; pp.1-23.

Designing Culture-Centred Interfaces - The Implementation of CCD Methodology

Proceedings of the International Design Congress IASDR 2005; 1-4 November; National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Taiwan; ISBN: 957-41-3203-X.