Understanding Cross-Cultural Meaning through Visual Media

John G Hedberg and Ian Brown, Australia

Abstracts
Lack of shared meaning can make communication dif cult for people of different cultures. Perceptions and practical experience are important in uences when devising and developing online learning experiences in cross-cultural contexts. In this study, 15 educational designers studying for their Masters Degree were asked to contribute their interpretations to an ongoing study of what meaning and interpretations were generated from a series of different learning environments offered via the Web. Course materials were designed in Australia and delivered into Hong Kong, SAR, and China. Students did not always interpret the visual information in the manner expected by the original designers. This paper discusses the outcomes of the investigation relating students perceptions of the appropriateness of the western interface design guidelines as they applied them to a number of exemplary Chinese WWW sites, highlighting the cultural differences in meaning and representation. Comprendre les diversits culturelles travers les images. Le manque de sens partag peut rendre dif cile la communication entre peuples de diffrentes cultures. Lexprience pratique et les diverses perceptions peuvent avoir leur importance lors de la conception et le dveloppement de projets de formation en ligne dans des contextes multiculturels. Dans cette tude, quinze concepteurs multimdias, du niveau de la matrise, ont t sollicits pour tudier les diffrentes interprtations et perceptions gnres par diffrents cours offerts sur le Web. Les cours ont t produits en Australie et diffuss Hong Kong, en SAR, et en Chine. Les tudiants nont pas toujours dcod les informations visuelles selon les voeux de leurs concepteurs. Cet article analyse les rsultats de cette investigation portant sur la perception quont les tudiants chinois, par exemple, de directives proposes par des auteurs occidentaux, laissant apparatre dimportants carts dans la reprsentation quils sen font. Interkulturelle Bedeutung durch visuelle Medien verstehen Kommunikation zwischen Menschen verschiedener Kulturen kann durch die Verwendung von Begriffen mit nicht gemeinsamer Bedeutung erschwert werden. Eigene Wahrnehmungen und praktische Erfahrungen sind wichtige Grundlagen fr den Entwurf und die Entwicklung von Online-Lehrgngen in interkulturellen Kontexten. In dieser Studie wurden fnfzehn Kursdesigner, die fr ihre Masters Degrees studierten, darum gebeten, ihre Interpretationen einer laufenden Studie ber die Frage, welche Bedeutung und Interpretationen durch eine Serie von ber das Netz angebotenen verschiedenen Lernumgebungen generiert wurden, abzugeben. Die Kursmaterialien wurden in Australien gestaltet und nach Hongkong, SAR China, bermittelt. Die Studenten interpretierten die visuelle Information nicht immer in der Weise, wie das von den Original Designern erwartete worden war. Dieses Papier errtert die Ergebnisse der Untersuchung, die die Wahrnehmungen der Studenten ber die Sinnentsprechung der westlichen Schnittstellenentwurfsrichtlinien in Beziehung setzt, indem sie sie auf eine Anzahl vorbildlicher chinesischer Web-Sites anwandten und damit die kulturellen Unterschiede in Bedeutung und Darstellung hervorhoben.

As tertiary studies employ more online delivery techniques and courses become truly global, educators, course designers and instructional designers must now transcend national boundaries and cater for their new students those with backgrounds as diverse as the cultures they live in. The increasing popularity and utilization of the World Wide Web (WWW) has led to a proliferation of course offerings that explore web design and construction. It is timely for principles, priorities and values to be closely examined and thus evaluate the appropriateness of how the content is being presented. Questions can be raised whether meaning and communication between cultures is effective with the material being presented. As Duffy and Cunningham (1996, p. 171) warn, idiosyncrasies of construction lead to an inability to communicate.
Education Media International ISSN 0952-3987 print/ISSN 1469-5790 online 2002 International Council for Education Media http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals DOI: 10.1080/0952398021013112 3

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As educators, we know that all students come to courses with different thinking and learning styles but now as we approach this unique learning situation the diversity is much more transparent, as we attempt to realize the needs of students from other countries and cultures. At times, the lack of shared meaning can make communication dif cult between people of different cultures. Resources are often developed for courses assuming that a common culture and shared meaning exist. According to Al-Hunaiyyan et al. (1999), culture is a discernible variable in interface acceptance and interfaces should be designed to accommodate users cultures. In an effort to examine whether this statement is true and, if the content and learning experiences presented in a WWW course was authentic and appropriate, this study sought to uncover cultural differences in the area of interface design. Within the postgraduate Master of Education programme, an online course, Cognition and Interface Design, was presented for students from both the Wollongong, Australia campus and the Hong Kong, SAR campus. The study examined the appropriateness of the content and the interface guidelines for Web construction, which had been developed within the Australian context.

Theoretical background
In recent years, researchers of technology-supported learning environments have embraced constructivism by providing educators with sets of design guidelines and instructional design goals (Cunningham et al., 1993; Savery and Duffy, 1995; Duffy and Cunningham, 1996). At the same time, researchers in the area of visualization and interface design have developed and proposed design guidelines for computer interface (Laurel, 1990; Tognazzini, 1992; Misanchuk et al., 2000). Accepting the tenet that learning is the process of constructing knowledge, Duffy and Cunningham (1996) suggested, through a social constructivist framework that knowledge is context dependent and that learners are participants in the socio-cultural process. Therefore, taking into account the interactive nature and ability for knowledge construction of the Web, then this type of learning should also be context dependent with learners participating in a socio-cultural process. This investigation rstly examined the nature of the learning process from a cultural perspective to determine the extent that context plays, and secondly evaluated the applicability of the components or principles of computer interface design when they are applied in differing cultural settings, in particular, in contexts different from their North American original viewpoints. The questions that guided the study were: do cultural differences exist in guiding instructional designers as they undertaken webpage design and construction? can a set of Web design principles developed in one cultural context be applied successfully in another cultural context? what cultural differences or context issues should be considered when developing online courses for multicultural cohorts? is culture a discernible variable in interface design?

International interface considerations

International user interfaces issues should be considered when instruction or a multimedia product is delivered in more than one country. Consideration of the special needs of different cultures is imperative in the design of user interfaces for international use (Del Galdo and Nielsen, 1996). Schneiderman (1992) raised the issue of cultural issues in interface design when stating little is known about computer users from different cultures, but designers are regularly called to make designs for other languages and cultures. It appears that little has changed. According to Shih and Goonetilleke (1998), user interface guidelines have been developed predominantly in English speaking countries, but aspects related to culture (e.g. local metaphors, symbols, colour and ow) are not universal and have received little or no attention. They propose that the design of culturally and linguisticallyadapted humancomputer interfaces for other cultures be adopted and speci c studies are needed to test relevant characteristics of computer interface for users from diverse cultural backgrounds. This sentiment has been echoed by several other authors (Marcus, 1992; Uren et al., 1993; Fernandes, 1995; Del Galdo, 1996). According to Marcus and Gould (2000), current user interface design is based on psychological and social models drawn from European and American research traditions, while recently, cultural psychologists, cultural anthropologists, cultural sociologists and designers have begun reconsidering the applicability of these models by identifying cultural preferences and value orientations more prevalent in Asia, Latin America, the Islamic world

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Figure 1 Two brochures for JAL aimed at different target audiences.

and Africa. In Figure 1, two versions of holiday brochures demonstrate the cross-cultural differences in visual display of information. Both illustrations are encouraging travel to the USA including Hawaii, but they approach the visual design from, in the rst case, a minimalist western perspective while the other caters for the eastern (Japanese) population where the alignment and balance is much more information dense and crowded in its visual design. The second employs embellishment with animated cartoon gures, which are not critical to the intention of the communication or meaning. Between 19781983, Dutch anthropologist Hofstede (1991) conducted detailed interviews with IBM employees from 53 countries and proposed that world cultures vary along consistent, fundamental dimensions. Hofstede identi ed ve dimensions: power-distance; collectivism vs. individualism; femininity vs. masculinity; uncertainty avoidance; and long vs. short-term orientation. Marcus and Gould (2000) examined Hofstedes dimensions and applied them to user interface and Web design outlining a number of signi cant implications/considerations in relation to internationalization issues. Considerations included issues such as: focus on expertise; the importance of the social role; motivation based on achievement; prominence/importance; the underlying sense of morality; limits to choice, redundant cues, navigation schemes; complexity; the desire for results and achievement of goals. Marcus and Gould were able to identify websites where Hofstedes dimensions could be applied, suggesting that interface designers should consider the cultural differences in relation to factors such as power and gender. In Figure 2, an example of an international companys visual design is presented, which has been provided for a speci c culture; the Shell Company varies the Web page design according to the culture in which their clients are located. Over 50 different sites are used to display the services and information worldwide. Three examples of different visual designs are provided for Shell Australia, Shell China and Shell Hong Kong. It is evident that design differences exist where the Australian site is contemporary in nature using bold colour and design, the China site is softer, subtler and uses elements of traditional art with calligraphy, while the Hong Kong site resorts to cartoon style unusual perspective on the Hong Kong skyline. The variety of text information varies considerably between the three examples. The three sites provide for a variety of cultural interpretations.

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Figure 2 Three examples of Shell copmpany international websites

Figure 2: Three examples of Shell company international websites

(a) The Shell Co. in Australia (also the design used in several other countries) bold and strong colours

(B) Shell Co. in China, a quiet and tasteful reminder of Chinese art forms

(C) Shell Co. in Hong Kong, a graphic style that links it to the high-rise buildings and love of animations

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Methodology
This study has been implemented in 20002001 within the Cognition and Interface Design postgraduate subject. The rst cohort completed a preliminary pilot study in 2000 and the second implementation occurred in DecemberFebruary 20002001. Fifteen students from Hong Kong developed an evaluation tool, in the form of a rubric, which has been be applied to a number of WWW sites that were deemed exemplary. These sites were chosen with Chinese and English language origins. Sets of four design principles have been formulated based on current research and have formed the framework for this evaluation. A large number of design principles exist in the area of visual and interface design, such as colour, layout, backgrounds, etc. For the purpose of this study, only four design principles or premises were extracted from the work of Williams and Tollett (2001). They were alignment, contrast, proximity and repetition. In summary, Williams and Tollett describe the four principles as: Alignment simply means that items on the page are lined up with each other, when aligned, the page is cleaner and more organized, therefore they communicate clearer; Contrast is what draws your eye into a page, if two elements (such as type, rules, graphics, colour and texture) are not the same, make them very different, contrasting elements create a hierarchy of information allowing the user to skim the information; Proximity: the principle of proximity refers to the relationship that items develop when they are close together, i.e. in close proximity, when two items are close they appear to have a relationship, to belong together, group items together that have some relationship, items that are not close in proximity appear as separate elements, spacing arrangements provide visual clues as to the meaning and importance of different information, the visual spaces create a hierarchy of information; Repetition: the concept of repetition is that throughout the site you repeat certain elements that tie all the disparate parts together, items such as navigation buttons, colours, style, illustrations, format, layout, typography are all elements that can unify a site. Fifteen students were asked to identify four Chinese websites each that they considered exemplary in their visual design. The students all had prior experience in Web design evaluation through previous coursework. Criteria for evaluation included items such as content and strategy, visual style, navigation and graphic design. The study was conducted in two phases. First, students were asked to identify four exemplary Chinese websites and, second, they were given the four Williams and Tollett design principles and asked to apply them to the rst four websites that they had chosen. They were then asked to identify any cultural differences evident.

Results
The results are discussed following the four design principles or premises proposed by Williams and Tollett (2001).

Alignment
It appears that alignment is a principle that may vary according to cultural context. In this study, the alignment of text on the screen design used on the Chinese sites was an important factor. According to one student, owing to the cultural style and characters of Chinese, the left edge is not necessarily the beginning of the text. While Williams and Tollett contend that indentation and left aligned text is preferable, traditionally Chinese characters for formal writing are presented in a vertical format with writing from right to left (although the Western in uence has allowed in some instances for writing characters to be read from the left as well). Therefore, in this context, the text would generally be centre aligned and indentation is not a requirement in Chinese writing. From the small sample of Chinese websites chosen for evaluation, centre alignment was the preferred principle (see Figure 3). Many sites also used a frame format where the screen was divided into either two or three segments with centre or left alignment within each cell. As another student responded, Chinese designers always centered the topic and the content for most Chinese thinks [sic] symmetrical objects look good and comfortable.

Contrast
Generally, the sites chosen used bold contrasting elements with many animated effects. Many sites used a variety of font sizes, some headings quite large in relation to text size. Colour was used in many of the sites to differentiate particular elements. Many students commented on the bolding of topic headings and the signi cantly bigger font size to bring attention. Within blocks of texts comments were added that important information was appropriately bolded or coloured for focal points.

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Figure 3 Sample page using centred and right alignment, and judged as well presented by students. This particular style is in contrast with the Western design principles

Proximity
On the whole, students commented that proximity in the chosen websites followed the principle outlined by Williams and Tollett. Text was aligned closely to graphics and images that provided understanding. The centre alignment of the text did allow for space between the concepts but generally this was used in a vertical format and generally for headings only. A number of students commented on the clumsy nature of the sites and the crowding of the sites. As one student stated the spacing arrangement is not strong enough to provide a visual clue to the meaning and importance of different information.

Repetition
Generally, according to the student evaluations, the Chinese sites used repetition as described by Williams and Tollett. On the whole, a consistent and predictable set of navigation tools, graphics, colour and style was carried throughout the sites chosen allowing for ease of navigation. As one student stated of the chosen sites, the repeated approach simpli ed navigation and ensured that they were built with a consistent rhythm and unity across the sites.

Conclusion
This study has resulted in a number of interesting ndings that would be signi cant to online course developers, instructional designers and researchers of computer interface design. Firstly, it appears from this study that there are cross-cultural differences existing between Western designed websites and Chinese developed sites. This is signi cant for a number of reasons in relation to online learning and the content provided for off-shore students. Content is being presented to students from base educational

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institutions with vastly different cultural contexts. In this case, Western instructional designers using Western design principles being delivered to Chinese students Secondly, it is important to note that students were asked to choose the exemplary sites rst, before being given the principles of Williams and Tollett. This ensured that students did not purposefully seek sites that demonstrated the principles proposed. In fact, the students generally accepted the principles as gospel and then commented that some of the sites chosen were not exemplary after all because they did not demonstrate the principles. For example, one student stated, the page looks not so neat and not so clear to communicate by the users [sic] although this site was chosen by the student as exemplary. This is signi cant for two reasons. First, the reason the students may not have readily found agreement with the principles was because the visual design was culturally different and second, the Western-based principles proposed were being adopted without question because they were part of the course content delivered. The fact that the students noted discrepancies should indicate the tensions and dif culties in matching the visual design and navigation of the sites to the four principles. Many students commented on the crowded nature of the screen design. Many elements, including animated graphics, were added to the pages, generally for embellishment, as one student commented, ashing graphics caused distracting of users eyes. Perhaps some parallel could be drawn between the visual impact of the oftencluttered neon explosion of the street signage and decorations experienced by rst time visitors to Hong Kong. From experience with other websites, this perception of more interesting visual appeal being equated with a number of cute visual effects appears to be culturally based. In addition, the use of written Chinese on several sites has additional impact by virtue of the nature of the written language and how it is parsed into grammatical structures. As grammar is derived from the context in Chinese writing, this also means that context is used to construct meaning as the text is read. This has immediate implications for how the text is laid out and designed for quick recognition and selection. In particular, websites are designed to attract and focus attention rather than being read, the visual representation of ideas through characters works in several ways and further studies are required to identify which factors are operating under which circumstances. As educators, we know that all students come to subjects with different thinking and learning styles, but now as we approach these unique technological learning situations, the diversity is much more transparent. We must realize the needs of students from other countries and cultures and recognize that at times the lack of shared meaning can make communication dif cult for people of different cultures. As instructional designers, we must recognize and provide appropriate interface for these learners. As course developers, we must also consider the appropriateness and relevance of the content being presented. Questions arise to what is appropriate for inclusion in a multimedia course instruction. What content is needed? What skills should educators develop? What course components should be categorized as mandatory or elective? The problem of content selection could be (and should be) as problematic as the delivery of the course. Visual design skills affect virtually every aspect of software interface design. Students need to develop skills in areas such as spatial relations or layout, perceptual or aesthetic principles (that is, proximity, similarity, continuity, closure etc), designing for computer screens, graphic interface design, visual design conventions (such as typography or colour ), animation and sound. There are many principles relating to interface design that should also be developed and included in course. Importantly, as course designers of subjects that includes interface design, we must also provide cross-cultural design considerations as outlined in this paper. Students need to be aware of the role of visual communication and the impact on the learner. A successful online course, Web page or educational multimedia package needs to bring together all the elements of successful interface successful for all users.

References
Al-Hunaiyyan, A, Hewitt, J and Jones, S (1999) Multimedia Interface Design in Relation to a Learners Culture. EdMedia Conference Proceedings, AACE, Seattle. Cunningham, D, Duffy, T M and Knuth, R (1993). Textbook of the Future. In McKnight, C (ed.) Hypertext: A psychological perspective, Elis Horwood Pub., London. Del Galdo, E (1996) Culture and Design. In Del Galdo, E and Nielson, J (eds) International User Interfaces, John Wiley & Sons, New York, pp. 7487. Del Galdo, E and Nielson, J (eds) (1996) International User Interfaces, John Wiley & Sons, New York. Duffy, TM and Cunningham, DJ (1996) Constructivism: Implications for the design and delivery of instruction. In Jonassen, DH (ed.) Handbook of Research for Educational Communications and Technology, Macmillan Library Reference, New York, pp. 170198.

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Fernandes, T (1995) Global Interface Design, AP Professional, Chestnut Hill, MA. Hofstede, G (1991) Cultures and organizations: software of the mind, McGraw-Hill, London. Laurel, B (1990) The art of human-computer interface design, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA. Marcus, A and Gould, EW (2000) Cultural dimensions and global web user-interface design, ACM Interactions, July/August, 3246. Marcus, A (1992) Human communications issues in advanced UIs, Communications of ACM, 34, 4, 101109 Misanchuk, E R, Schwier, R A and Boling, E (2000) Discourse on Designing an Illustrated HyperMedia Book, Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 9, 3, 223254. Savery, JR and Duffy, TM (1995) Problem Based Learning: An instructional model and its constructivist framework, Educational Technology, 35, 5, 3138. Schneiderman, B (1992) Designing the user interface, Addison-Wesley, Singapore. Shih, HM and Goonetilleke, RS (1998) Effectiveness of menu orientation in Chinese, Journal of Human Factors, 40, 4, 569576. Tognazzini, B (1992) Tog on interface, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA. Uren, E, Howard, R and Perinotti, T (1993) Software Internationalisation and Localisation, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York. Williams, D and Tollett, J (2001) Design Workshop, Peachpit Press, Berkeley, CA.

Biographical notes
Drs John Hedberg and Ian Brown both teach in the Master of Education programme in Information and Communications Technology in Learning at the University of Wollongong. The programme is taught both on campus and in a number of other locations including Hong Kong where the students who participated in this study were completing their degree.

Address for correspondence

Professor John G. Hedberg, Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia. e-mail: john_Hedberg@uow.edu.au.

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