Cultural differences on attention and perceived usability: Investigating color combinations of animated graphics

Abstract

This experimental study investigates the effects of animated graphic colors on attention and perceived usability of users from two cultural groups, American and Thai. The experiment employs a three-way split-plot design with one between-subjects factor and two repeated-measures factors. The between-subjects factor contains two cultural groups, American and Thai. The two repeated-measures variables are a banner background color factor with six levels and a banner font color factor with two levels. Participants search for target words from text on Web pages that contain three animated banner graphics. The findings lead to the conclusion that users across cultures tend to ignore animated banner graphics when they look for specific information on highly informative Web pages. This study also suggests influences of culture on overall performance, overall retention, and overall self-reports on usability, regardless of differences in banner color combinations. Moreover, cultural differences on the self-report of attention drawing are also revealed in each banner color usage, except yellow banners with white text. This study does not aim at exploring superiority of participants between cultures. Rather, it attempts to explore some possible cultural differences in interacting with a computer interface that could facilitate cognition and perception of users from different cultural groups.

Introduction

Developing a successful computer interface requires careful consideration of language translation and the implications of culturally sensitive elements. A number of studies (e.g., Tractinsky, 1997; Dong and Salvendy, 1999) show that taking cultural diversity into account in a design process, particularly in interface design, is essential. Still, cultural studies in HCI are limited.

As cultural backgrounds could influence learned responses to color (Eiseman, 2000), color preferences might be considered culturally dependent. Interface designers need to understand color appreciation and color responses of people in different cultures and regions. Effective usage of color can create several benefits, and these benefits must be given to all people throughout the world.

In terms of interface design, other than color, motion is also an important attribute of objects that can most distract visual attention (Constantine and Lockwood, 1999). Therefore, understanding how a user processes information on a Web interface that contains not only text but also animated graphics (e.g., banner advertisings) is particularly important to a Web usability engineer in designing usable Web pages. Moreover, Web users often perform more than one online activity simultaneously (e.g., information seeking, online chatting). Nevertheless, it is widely known that human beings have limited attention and limited short-term memory. As such, the effectiveness in human information processing is lessened when performing concurrent tasks.

This study explores the effects of combinations of text and background colors of Web animated graphics on attention and perceived usability in seeking information on Web pages containing animated banner graphics between American and Thai participants. This empirical study potentially contributes to a necessity of understanding cognitive processing of people across cultures when interacting with computer interfaces.

The study addresses the following questions:

• Are there differences in performance, retention, and self-reports of usability when users perform target-word searching on different Web pages containing animated banner graphics with different combinations of text and background colors?

• Does culture affect performance, retention, and self-reports of usability when users perform target-word searching on different Web pages containing animated banner graphics with different combinations of text and background colors?