A Visualization Pilot Study for Hypermedia: Developing Cross-Cultural User Profiles for New Media Interfaces

With the unparalleled yearly growth of the World Wide Web (WWW) and a concise paradigm shift to global e-marketing, media research organizations have placed human-computer interaction (HCI) and usability issues as a key factor in the development of global-based website products. New media e-business developers need to design materials from an understanding of cultural knowledge as part of their basic strategy, employing cross-cultural experts that understand the cultural, linguistic, and psychological implications that should form the context of product branding. The need to create cross-cultural usability models to assist developers is an important stage in effective information delivery. For this reason, the pilot study discussed here took the approach of compare how American and Russian cultures visualize and represent images in real-time. This perspective is an attempt to provide new knowledge to support existing design and interface standards that attempt to remedy the complexities of international hyper media products with limited empirical data, rather than specific inquiry into the cognitive development of users manifested in cultural preferences. These complexities must address not only the placement of graphic and textural content, but also the hierarchy of assembled information within a site's architecture that match cultural-specific logic. Hence, the mission of this study was to initiate culture-based profiling, with a database that could support ongoing research and application for developers in new media communication. ********** Since the commercial delivery of Apple's OS, system engineers and interface designers have been increasingly challenged to develop products that could stand the scrutiny of usability inspectors and controlled human performance testing. Though the history of hypermedia is brief, in the context of multimedia and other interactive products, developers continue to devise their own system for design and usability. Some companies invest thousands of dollars in predevelopment research, while others rely on instinct or their own subjective formula of fidelity (Faiola, 2001). As a result, the spectrum of concern and invested capital to create usable interfaces is quite broad. This dilemma is heightened when we approach a comparison of international websites designed to serve a global community. Unfortunately, among thousands of internationally targeted users, how many websites conform to the goals or learning necessities of a cross-cultural audience? Within the scope of meaning assigned to multimedia and hypermedia, what is significant in an international context is: (a) the portal they provide to new learning environments across many cultures, and (b) the facility to attain common ground on which to build communication with partners around the world. In addition, the challenges of new media education and business must go much deeper than the user interface and the value chain of product development, because over the next 10 years we will see a global economy that will be driven by rapid and largely unrestricted flows of information, ideas, cultural values, capital, goods and services, and people--what experts refer to as globalization. Regions, countries, and groups feeling left behind will face deepening economic stagnation, political instability, and cultural alienation (National Intelligence Council, 2000). According to Sawhney and Mandal (2000), the latest statistics reveal that 91 million people access the Internet from English-speaking countries, whereas 80 million people access the Internet in other languages. By 2003, an estimated 67% of Internet users will log on outside the United States; and the foreign share of e-commerce will reach 56%; an increase of 26% over 1998. Experts predict that nonEnglish Internet usage will grow up to 57% by 2005, with estimated revenues reaching 1.44 trillion dollars. …