HCDE 512: Ministry of Foreign Affairs
By: Patriya Wiesmann
Tags: Human Centered Design, International, Hofstede, UX Design

HCDE 512: International User Experience is taught by Dr. Saiph Savage at the University of Washington. This course explores design for international and emerging markets with a focus on intelligent systems. This week we applied our design skills with cultural dimension theories to create a virtual assistant.

This week’s assignment challenged us to: design a virtual assistant for Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to help the government deliver better services to citizens. As someone growing up with dual-citizenship, I was interested in exploring the passport application and renewal process. My design is a virtual assistant created to aid multi-national families renew passports out of country and help children apply for dual-citizenship.

Assumptions and Characteristics

Based on the Hofstede Model, Mexico exemplifies the following traits:

High Power Distance Index (PDI): Citizens respect hierarchy and will listen to government officials for guidance and instruction. Inequality is tolerated and children learn respect of elders.

Low Individualism: As a collectivist society, Mexicans will prioritize the group or community over an individual. Individuals prefer to blend in and may involve intermediaries. Their social network is a form of security and children have life-long contact with their family.

High Masculinity and High Uncertainty Avoidance: Citizens will expect direct, assertive responses. They expect specific laws and regulations and prefer structured learning.

In terms of time and communication, Mexico exemplifies:

Polychronic & High Context Society: While laws will need to be specific, there is also unspoken information through gestures and the sense of in vs. out group. As time can be flexible, they believe in long-term relationships and will respect promptness for close relationships.

Requirements Based on Assumptions

System must be usable via a handheld device and support both Android and iOS. System will need to provide clear directions from government officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Virtual assistant will be aware of important announcements on the home screen and will notify users. Ability for families to have a shared profile where family members can be added. Incorporating voice features and/or connection to a real person. Voice features will be direct yet conversational in nature. Virtual assistant will have an animated character that allows for facial expressions and hand gestures. Priority tasks will be highlighted with estimated date of receiving passport. System language will be in Spanish. English translation will come as a secondary priority.

These requirements exemplify the two main goals of the system:

Create a usable and trustworthy system : In HCDE 598D Voice Interaction Design taught by Damien Dobrowski, we have learned that first impressions in virtual assistants dictate beyond user adoption, but also how the system will be interacted with regardless of updates to system capabilities. It is important to get the system right the first time around since new commands may not be used.

: In HCDE 598D Voice Interaction Design taught by Damien Dobrowski, we have learned that first impressions in virtual assistants dictate beyond user adoption, but also how the system will be interacted with regardless of updates to system capabilities. It is important to get the system right the first time around since new commands may not be used. Support citizenship application: As there is pride in community and tradition, the government will want to make this process easier on citizens born and living abroad. A conversational yet direct virtual assistant will ease the process by connecting users to resources and being interactive.

Translating this to Design

It was important that this virtual assistant be available on small portable devices such as phones as not everyone has a laptop and stable internet providers in Mexico and worldwide.

Virtual Assistant Characteristics & Communication

Here it was important to capture step-by-step assistance by the virtual assistant, incorporate voice features for interaction, and allow for hand gestures/facial expressions for unspoken communication. Rosa, as the assistant is named, can speak and read the text messages aloud as the user follows along. This would be particularly helpful in perhaps guiding the user how to take a passport photo which has very specific regulations. Additionally, this speaking feature helps reduce distraction and incorporate a long term relationship. Since Spanish fluency is part of establishing citizenship, the conversation indirectly allows for language practice. Furthermore, Rosa suggests connecting the user to a real person. Information can also be shared with family members shown below.

Family Profiles

In designing the profile screen, it was crucial to have the ability to connect to all family members and to illustrate extended family such as elders. This is also where messages can be forwarded from the virtual assistant to keep everyone connected including passport status. Since promptness is important when involving close relationships, family members will be more active in meeting deadlines. The virtual assistant is available through all screens.

Conclusion

Moving forward I would want to incorporate a localization team with colleagues who are well-versed or have grown up in Mexico along with cross-cultural individuals. With more time, I would love to explore all the areas of this application and how it could promote cross-cultural awareness. One of the flaws of the Hofstede Model is not incorporating multicultural backgrounds. Additionally, dual citizenship is a fairly complex process based on each country. I would want to investigate this further across multiple countries and see if there would be a way to add country-specific tools such as a passport-photo-taking feature.

References and Resources

https://www.gob.mx/sre

https://hi.hofstede-insights.com/national-culture

https://www.hofstede-insights.com/product/compare-countries/

https://news.umich.edu/more-kids-living-in-multigenerational-families/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretariat_of_Foreign_Affairs_(Mexico)