Culture-Centered Design: Cultural Factors in Interface Usability and Usability Tests

As technologies in the field of information and communication quickly developed all over the world, application of a standardized interface posed usability problems for users of multi-culture. In this situation, we should have a new perspective of user-interface design, which is the challenge of designing a culture-centered interface that is more natural. This article first reviews domain psychological research conclusions on cultural differences in cognitive and perception between East Asians and Westerners. Then the recent researches on cultural interfaces design and cultural usability test of Web site, software and digital devices are reviewed. The discussion of cultural issues will provide valuable implication to the digital product designers and researchers on design approaches and usability test methods.