UX Analysis of the North Korean Information Technology

Abstract

In this paper we introduce our latest findings and insights we have acquired from our UX analysis on various North Korean IT products. The objective of this research is to understand the current status and the characteristics of the North Korean UX. Little is known about UX in North Korea. Based on the fact that UX has progressed in parallel with the advancement of information technology, we have obtained a number of North Korean IT products and services to grasp their UX. The products we used in our research include a smartphone, a tablet, a computer operating system and a website all made in North Korea. This paper describes the 1st phase of our research journey on North Korean UX through analysis on these products of ‘made in North Korea.’

1 Introduction

1.1 Research Background

Little is known about UX in North Korea. UX has now become a core area of design in parallel with the advancement in information technology. For example, in South Korea a number of universities offer graduate degree programs and produce high-educated specialists every year. North Korea, on the other hand, has little information on how they nurture UX experts, what process they take to create UX, etc.

Considering the trend that UX has traditionally developed along with the information technology industry, there’s possibility to look into the North Korean UX indirectly through its IT industry. The level of North Korea’s software technology is known to be quite high [1]. On the other hand, the hardware sector is weak because it requires enormous investment in infrastructure. In the daily lives of North Koreans living in major cities like Pyongyang, information technology is somewhat prevalent [2]. In the case of mobile communication [3], North Korea started its 3G service in 2008, and about 4 million people are known to be using smartphones as of 2018. ‘Arirang’ and ‘Pyongyang’ are the popular smartphones [4].

Although the Internet access for North Koreans is extremely limited, the North Korean government has set up an internal network called ‘Gwangmyeong Network’, which provides somewhat similar Internet experience to its people. For example, the Gwangmyeong Network has a portal site called ‘Gwangmyeong.’ Many government and public organizations have set up their websites in this network. In 2015, North Korea’s ‘People’s Services Administration’ unit opened an online shopping mall named ‘Okyu,’ followed by ‘Manmulsang’ and ‘Eunpasan’. In 2018 ‘Pyongyang No.1 Department Store’ has opened its first online shopping mall in Gwangmyeong Network.

Globally, North Korea operates websites for foreigners. Many of them are in fact political propaganda websites. But we can also find a number of websites for practical use. A good example is the Air Koryo - the state-owned national flag carrier airline of North Korea - website for foreigners to fly to North Korea. Popular software applications for personal computers developed in North Korea include a word processor called ‘Changdeok’ and Korean IME for Microsoft Windows called ‘Dangun.’ In fact, the latest version of Changdeok is expanded to an office suite including spreadsheet and presentation tools. In addition, a variety of games and e-book apps are available on smartphones and tablets used by North Korean residents. North Korea produces Android-based tablets such as ‘Ryongheung’ and ‘Myohyang.’ Also, North Korea has developed an operating system called “The Red Star,” a modified version of Linux, and has announced it as a national standard operating system [5].

A brief look into the current status of the North Korea’s IT industry as described above tells us that North Korea indeed designs UX on their products. Various computer software, apps and web sites developed are equipped with UX made in North Korea. By analyzing North Korea’s IT products, we will be able to grasp the current status and characteristics of North Korean UX.

1.2 Research Objectives

The objective of this research is to identify the current status and the characteristics of North Korean UX through analysis of UX in IT products made by North Korea. We are particularly interested in investigating the similarities and differences of UX between South and North Korea that share the same Korean language system. We aim to achieve this goal through comparative analysis of similar products from the two nations.

2 UX Analysis Process and Methods

2.1 Research Steps

This study was conducted through the following procedure. First, we defined 4 representative IT product groups, and for each group we chose products of South and North Korea. Second, for each product we listed ten to twenty five elements and ten use scenarios, conducted in-house comparative UX analysis on each element and scenario. Third, we conducted a user research with 8 South Korean participants on North Korean products. Fourth, we hosted a workshop with 15 to 25 attendees in an UX related academic conference. Finally, we consolidated all the collected, summarized them, and drew key insights on the current status and the characteristics of the North Korean UX.

2.2 Selection of the Products

We selected the four representative IT product groups. They are smartphone, tablet, computer operating system and website. For each product group we obtained North Korean products first, and then looked for matching South Korean products.

Selected North Korean products are as follows: ‘Pyongyang 2423’ is the North Korea’s latest Android based smartphone released in the October of 2018 (Fig. 1). ‘Ryonghung’ is one of the most popular tablets used in North Korea. It’s a 7 inch Android based tablet with 8 GB memory and 30 mega-pixel built-in camera (Fig. 2). The Red Star is the national standard computer operating system in North Korea (Fig. 3). The one we used in our study is version 3.0 released in 2014. North Korea runs political propaganda websites such as ‘Uriminzokkiri (Among Korean People)’ and ‘Today in North Korea.’ Access to these political websites are restricted in South Korea. In this study, we chose Air Koryo’s website (Fig. 4) as we wanted a website with little political propaganda and instead focuses on practical purpose.

Fig. 1.

Pyongyang 2423

Fig. 2.

Ryonghung

Fig. 3.

The Red Star 3.0

Fig. 4.

Air Koryo’s Website (www.airkoryo.com.kp)

South Korean products have been selected in consideration of technical specification and use context of North Korean products (Table 1). Also, we chose products made in South Korea except for Microsoft Windows 10 Korean version. South Korea does not have a national standard OS made in South Korea.

Table 1. Selected products from both Koreas

2.3 Selection of Elements and Use Scenarios

For each product group, 10 to 25 elements were selected for UX analysis. Elements include product features such as functions, UI components, etc. For each product group, 10 use scenarios were created. Table 2 shows the selected elements. Below are the lists of 10 use-scenarios for each product group.

Table 2. List of elements for analysis

Smartphone

• 1. Enter and save the following contact in the address book (Name: Hong Kildong/Cell phone number: 010-9876-2345/Address: 101, Birthday: 2019.2.13/Record: University student)

• 2. Take a picture and view the picture just taken

• 3. Open the web browser and connect to Naver (a South Korean portal)

• 4. Make a call to Hong Gil Dong in the address book

• 5. Change the date to January 1st, 2019

• 6. Turn on your phone’s flashlight

• 7. Enter and save the following schedule (Classification: Conference/Time 2019.2.13 12: 00-15: 00/Repetition: Weekly/Notification: 30 min before)

• 8. Choose “Hong Kildong” from the address book and send the following text to him; make sure to add smiley emoticon from your mobile phone emoticon list at the end: “Are you coming? (smiley emoticon)”

• 9. Change the background image of the phone’s lock screen and top-menu screen by choosing an image from the built-in image list in the phone.

• 10. Launch an app corresponding to Korean dictionary and browse ‘Daehanminguk (South Korea in Korean language)’ in that dictionary app

Tablet

• 1. Move the file tool window to another position

• 2. Adjust the volume

• 3. Switch between the front and rear camera

• 4. Change the wallpaper

• 5. Record your voice, save it and play it back

• 6. Make a quick note and add a gallery photo into it

• 7. Calculate a mathematical expression using a calculator

• 8. Take a photo, and immediately jump right into the gallery to crop it (edit photo)

• 9. Adjust the screen brightness directly from the current screen without entering the setting menu

• 10. Change the date and time

OS

• 1. Change wallpaper

• 2. Capture current screen to make a screenshot

• 3. Change the date and time

• 4. Write and post a sticky note on a screen

• 5. Recover it back after deleting a file

• 6. Create a simple document; use copy, cut and paste function

• 7. Add a new event to a calendar

• 8. Write an email

• 9. Calculate a mathematical expression using a calculator

• 10. Create a simple presentation document (1 slide)

Website

• 1. Sign up

• 2. Change your password from My Page

• 3. View the following international flight schedules: Beijing - Pyongyang/New York - Seoul

• 4. Book a round-trip ticket: Beijing - Pyongyang/New York-Seoul

• 5. Check my reservation

• 6. Make a payment (reach to the last step of the transaction page)

• 7. Change your reservation: To the closest date after the scheduled date

• 8. Add passengers

• 9. Checking for information on: in-flight baggage/in-flight meal services

• 10. Cancel your reservation

2.4 In-House Analysis

Feature inspection and comparative analysis were used as analysis methods. Each element was reviewed, and each use scenario was run on both South and North Korean products. The objectives of this in-house analysis were (1) for researchers to get familiar with North Korean products (2) to prepare user research.

2.5 User Research

Once internal analysis mentioned above was completed, we conducted user research with 8 participants composed of 5 master and 3 doctoral students majoring in UX. For each product two participants were assigned. Of the ten use scenarios 3 were selected as task scenarios based on the findings from the in-house analysis. Participants were asked to execute the three task scenarios in turn, and give any thoughts and opinions of their experience.

2.6 Workshop

In order to collect various thoughts and opinions, we hosted a ‘North Korean UX Research’ workshop at the Korean HCI Conference 2019. About 15 conference attendees joined our workshop. We made four breakout groups and assigned North Korean product to each group. Based on cognitive walkthrough we ran the same three task scenarios used in the user research for each product.

3 Analysis Summary

As mentioned earlier, the goal of this study is to understand the current status and the characteristics of each North Korean product. We have collected a vast amount of factual data through three UX analysis activities and consolidated them. Below are the summaries of our insight of each product from our data.

3.1 Smartphone: Pyongyang 2423

Thanks to its a high level of design and performance most participants didn’t see it as a smartphone from North Korea at first (Fig. 5). The visual style is somewhat a mixture of material design and squeegee morphism. It comes from the mix of newly created apps and the old apps from the previous smartphones.

Fig. 5.

Pyongyang 2423

There were opinions from participants that its design is not filled up with explicit political ideas as they had imagined. For example, all of the built-in wallpapers were either about nature or abstract concept but no image of their supreme leader portraits. The wallpaper containing the text image of ‘Pyongyang’ is the only one that reveals this product is from North Korea (Fig. 6). Of course, the phone is equipped with several built-in apps with a plain political propaganda (Fig. 7) so it is not fully free from politics.

Fig. 6.

Built-in Wallpapers. The image on the middle-left has ‘Pyongyang’ text in Korean

Fig. 7.

Built-in political propaganda app

As it follows the basis of Google Android on the whole, participants using the Android phones were able to carry out task scenarios without much difficulties. The most unfamiliar UX factor for South Korean users was terminology. Many participants gave comments that those foreign terminologies overly translated into the North Korean style expression seemed very strange and unfamiliar, but also interesting on the other hand.

3.2 Tablet: Ryonghung

Being an Android-based tablet, participants who have experience with Android tablets produced in South Korea found themselves easy to adapt to Ryonghung. The basic UI skeleton such as the button positions or input windows are similar. Touch interaction and gesture sets conform to the original Android standard.

The visual style basically followes skeumorphism. Material Design, the standard GUI for Google Android, was hard to find in Ronchung. One reason is the one we used in our research is manufactured before the birth of Material Design. However, the latest North Korean Android Tablet called ‘Dayang 8321’ released in 2018 seemed not to have adopted the Material Design either (Figs.  8 and 9).

Fig. 8.

Ryonghung’s Visual UI style

Fig. 9.

Daeyang 8231 (screen capture from North Korea’s Central Television News)

A number of participants expressed their thoughts that Ryonghung was better than they expected. For example, its PDF reader showed smooth transition between pages, and its UX was similar to a popular e-book reader in South Korea. Of course, there were a several comments on inconveniences due to usability deficiencies too.

The slight difference in terminology was the most unfamiliar for South Korean users. In addition, the North Korean keyboard layout was also slightly different from the standard South Korean keyboard layout. Thus a number of participants showed common usage pattern of making a typo during the task of entering text.

It was interesting to see that built-in apps of Ryonghung were focused on the two conflicting areas of education and entertainment. Among the education apps, some showed explicit political propaganda. On the other hand, game apps showed a tendency to pursue entertainment itself than political intention. Ryonghung has game apps like ‘Motorcycle Race’ or ‘Joy of Billiard.’

3.3 OS: The Red Star Version 3.0

The first characteristics pointed out by our participants was that the overall design of the Red Star 3.0 was very similar to Mac OS. Many of our participants were industrial designers and they generally use Apple product either at work or at home. Those familiar with Mac OS also had little trouble carrying out the task scenarios.

The basic UI elements - controls or widgets - were also familiar to our participants (Fig. 10). The most disturbing element was terminology and expression. Like other products, North Korea overly translated globally well known English words into North Korean words, which were unfamiliar to even South Korean users who use same Korean language.

Fig. 10.

‘Open File’ Dialogue Box in the Red Star version 3.0 (Color figure online)

3.4 Website: Air Koryo

Many participants expressed their surprise with comments such as “I thought North Korea’ s website would be very outdated,” “I imagined everything would be in red because it is a communist nation,” “It is not too distanced from my own web experience.” In overall, ‘better than imagined,’ ‘clean,’ ‘wonderful’ and ‘simple’ were common expressions from our participants. Of course, some expressed unfamiliarity and uncomfortability.

Material The basic layout of the website is not much different from the Korean Air’s website in South Korea. The main menu is located on the top right, and the very center of the screen has a large banner. A notable difference is that Air Koryo website has no advertising. It is also a very simple and clear website that is faithful to its functional purposes (Fig. 11). It is in contrast to the fact that Korean Airline’s site is full of capitalistic elements such as promotions and special offers (Fig. 12).

Fig. 11.

Air Koryo Website (2019.2)

Fig. 12.

South Korea’s Korean Airline website (2019.2)

Figure 13 shows flight schedule for Beijing-Pyongyang. Scheduled days were marked with the ‘flying bird’ logo, which is the trademark of Air Koryo. However, some commented that it was not easy to recognize what it meant to have those marks on the days.

Fig. 13.

Flight schedule between Beijing and Pyongyang

Air Koryo’s website is not equipped with online payment methods. Instead, customer is asked to make deposit to Air Koryo’s bank accounts of the banks in China or Russia. This contrasts with Korean Airline’s various online payment methods. In addition, participants pointed out that UX was not well structured to cover various use patterns of flight users such as ‘changing reservations’ or ‘selecting seats.’ On the other hand, in some parts the website showed very detailed customer service message. Examples are “There is a vegetarian diet” or “You can take a monkey with you as a pet.” Unfamiliarity with terminologies and heavily translated expressions were major confusions to the participants as in other products too.

4 Round-Up

4.1 Conclusion

In overall, South Korean participants’ impressions on the North Korean IT products were “better than I thought.” For most of the South Koreans the first impression on North Korea is one of the poorest nation in the world where thousands starve to death. For them, it was amazing to find out that North Korea has such good IT capability, and many North Korean residents do enjoy information technology in their everyday lives.

On the UX side, there was no huge difference between South Korean and North Korean products. Most of the smart devices tend to conform to the DNA of their platform owners (e.x.: Google Android), so basic UX structure tend to be similar. This is evident from the comparison of websites. Web does not have such market-dominant platform owner - only open standard - thus showed relatively more differences between the two Korean websites than that of smart devices.

To summarize our participant’s opinions into one sentence: “very similar to South Korean products with some obvious differences.” One participant expressed his experience using the metaphor “time difference of 3 h.” Big countries like the US has domestic time difference among their cities. When we travel to another city in different time zone - for instance, you live in San Francisco and you travel to NYC - we feel there is no big difference in general. However time to time you confront unfamiliar cases that are different from your routine experience. Shops close earlier than you thought for instance. Physically there is no time difference between South Korea and North Korea. For UX, there’s is 3 h time difference, metaphorically speaking.

4.2 Future Research

Although the Red Star is officially North Korea’s national standard operating system, it is not widely in use. Computer is not yet an everyday home electronics in North Korea and penetration rate is still low. Universities and research institutes with relatively higher computer usage are known to use illegal copies of MS Windows. Thus the Red Star is being developed as a server OS in order to lower the dependence of using OS made in USA - particularly OS for servers with sensitive national security issues. This is somewhat similar situation in South Korea. We also have ‘made in Korea’ operating system such as ‘Harmonica’ and ‘Gurum’ specialized for server systems. The initiative for developing these products was a concern on using foreign-made OS for servers related to national security. We plan to compare these ‘made in Koreas’ server OSs in the future.

This study focused on identifying current status and the characteristics of the North Korean UX. In order to keep this goal, we intentionally ruled out evaluating the quality of North Korean UX. The two Koreas are in military and political confrontation, and each individual’s political judgment on North Korea varies. Individuals less fond of North Korea have high chance to point out only the negative aspects of North Korean products. We didn’t want participants’ personal political opinions to cloud factual characteristics. In other words, by not judging the quality we strove to keep objective view on North Korean UX and focused on ‘fact-finding.’ In our second phase of the study we plan to conduct in-depth assessment on the quality. Maintaining objectivity will continue to be a key concern in the second study.