Towards a Theory of Cultural Usability: A Comparison of ADA and CM-U Theory

Abstract

Cultural models in terms of the characteristics and content of folk theories and folk psychology have been important to social scientists for centuries. From Wilhelm Wundt’s Volkerpsychologie to the distributed and situated cognition theorists in the global world of today, thinkers have seen human action as being controlled by cultural models. The study of cultural models for humans interacting with computers should thus be at the heart of the scientific study of human-computer interaction (HCI). This paper presents a theory of cultural usability that builds on the concept of Cultural Models of Use (CM-U theory). The theory is compared to existing Artifact Development Analysis (ADA) theory to identify its sensitivity to explain cultural usability phenomena. The conclusion is that a) the theory can account for empirical findings on cultural usability, and b) CM-U and ADA theories seem to fit different user populations’ perception of usability.KeywordsCultural modelsHCIcultureusability