Interface Design for Cultural Differences

Abstract

Users preferences in interface design are very important and given a great concern by designers and application developers. Among the main features of the design approach that always gets the attention of the interface designer is the cultural feature or more specifically is the aspect of nationality in the feature. Aspect of religion is one of the aspects in the cultural feature. However, the religious aspect is rarely or never discussed in previous studies related to the interface design. Hence this study was undertaken with the assumption that the religious aspect affects the interface design and content elements of the applications. Fifty university students comprising all three main races in Malaysia took part in cultural dimensions survey. The main purpose of this preliminary study is to identify the tendency of cultural dimensions base on religious differences, and to identify whether the users of different religions have different pattern of preferences when using the interface. The findings of the study shows that cultural dimensions defined in this study influenced users of different religion differently. Discussions on the reasons for the differences are given in details.