This forum looks at how the fields of interaction design and HCI can
extend to cover “developing” communities around the world, ones that
are gaining access to digital technology for the first time.
Gary Marsden, Editor
Because Deep Down,
We Are Not the Same: Values
in Cross-Cultural Design
Minna Kamppuri
University of Eastern Finland | minna.kamppuri@uef.fi
When I was studying the use of
mobile phones among university
students in Tanzania, I spent many
days waiting for interviewees who
failed to show up, without explanation. Many other interviewers, even
local ones, reported having the
same problem. Later I learned that
the easiest way to meet users was
to select a random chair anywhere
in the campus, sit down, and wait.
It would not be long before one of
the local students would come to
talk to me. Try the same at a busy
Finnish university campus, and
the chances are the only person
who will approach you that day is a
guard who wants you to leave so he
can lock the doors for the night.
This is just one example of the
kinds of cultural encounters that
make cross-cultural interaction
design both a fascinating and frus-
trating experience. Learning about
users and context is always a part of
a designer’s work, but in cross-cul-
tural design the task is more chal-
lenging because a designer often
lacks the background knowledge
about environment, infrastructure,
politics, laws, culture, and historical
and current events in the society
in which users live—something a
designer can take for granted when
designing “at home.” Such knowl-
edge is needed in planning a design
project and for deciding which
techniques to use and how to adapt
them to match local practices such
as communication and management
styles—not to mention that design-
ing without this knowledge would
result in isolated systems that are
less likely to become successful
long-term solutions.
Cultural Dimensions as a Design Aid
When culture and values are discussed in cross-cultural HCI, they
are often discussed in terms of
cultural dimensions, such as those
of Geert Hofstede [ 1]. Cultural
dimensions describe cultural values
using concepts such as uncertainty
avoidance and individualism versus
collectivism. They have been found
to be relevant in both human-computer interaction and interaction
between users and designers. As a
design aid, however, cultural dimensions are in many ways problematic.
Cultural dimensions are based
on a statistical analysis of questionnaire answers from a large number
of people in different countries.
Typically, researchers study a particular group of people (in the case
of Hofstede, employees of IBM), but
the results are generalized across
a country or even beyond. In the
case of Tanzania, the five scores
on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions
March + April 2012
