Cross-Cultural Redesign Based on the Cultural Differences Between Finland and China
Yang, Wenjuan (2018)
Yang, Wenjuan
2018
Information Technology
Tieto- ja sähkötekniikan tiedekunta - Faculty of Computing and Electrical Engineering
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2018-10-03
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201810032379
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201810032379
Tiivistelmä
With the rapid development of world economic and technology, more and more multinational companies, international business, cross-cultural designs have appeared in people’s lives. However, the cultural differences among different cultures affect numerous aspects of economic cooperation and design direction. In this thesis, based on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, Finnish and Chinese were chose as 2 culture groups which were used to analyze how cultural differences influence on human mindsets and the design-related work, especially website user interface design. A Finnish company’s website (including its design style and the related website content) were redesigned to meet Chinese users’ needs and preferences. 8 Chinese website design implications were summarized at last.
At the beginning of this thesis, the theoretical background and related work of crosscultural design and website design were provided. Website design principles and current design trends were presented. Then, the Geert Hofstede’s culture dimensions were introduced. According to the results of the Hofstede’s model, the cultural differences between Finland and China were summarized. By comparing the cultural differences and design differences, totally 24 UI design differences were concluded to support the following design work. Subsequently, semi-structured interviews and online questionnaire investigation were conducted to study on how Chinese users feel about using Finnish websites and participating in Finnish projects, as well as local Chinese users’ preferences and website using habits. Combining the results of cultural model analysis and user research work, as well as the design principles and trends summarized in the related work, the Finnish company - Demola’s website and project concept was redesigned. After redesigning work, user evaluation (including 3 focus groups, totally 6 participants) was conducted to examine whether the redesigned website conforms to the usage habits of Chinese local users. After completing the redesign work and user evaluation, design implications for Chinese web service design are summarized in order to help designers from other cultures to create the website for Chinese users.
At the beginning of this thesis, the theoretical background and related work of crosscultural design and website design were provided. Website design principles and current design trends were presented. Then, the Geert Hofstede’s culture dimensions were introduced. According to the results of the Hofstede’s model, the cultural differences between Finland and China were summarized. By comparing the cultural differences and design differences, totally 24 UI design differences were concluded to support the following design work. Subsequently, semi-structured interviews and online questionnaire investigation were conducted to study on how Chinese users feel about using Finnish websites and participating in Finnish projects, as well as local Chinese users’ preferences and website using habits. Combining the results of cultural model analysis and user research work, as well as the design principles and trends summarized in the related work, the Finnish company - Demola’s website and project concept was redesigned. After redesigning work, user evaluation (including 3 focus groups, totally 6 participants) was conducted to examine whether the redesigned website conforms to the usage habits of Chinese local users. After completing the redesign work and user evaluation, design implications for Chinese web service design are summarized in order to help designers from other cultures to create the website for Chinese users.