More informations: http://www.ponton-lab.de

1. User Experience &
Intercultural Communication
World Usability Day 2009
Wiebke Müller, Junior Project Manager
M.A. International Information Management
Image: UPA International Conference „Embracing Cultural Diversity“ usabilityprofessionals.org

2. Exercise 1
On a monday evening while you‘re surfing on the
internet, you come across this picture: „There is a
visibly old car on a large rainy place. It is dark and the
car lights are switched on.“
Which associations do you have when imagining this
situation? None? This is not a problem, neither do we.
Now please have a look at the next page.

3. Monday, Nov 09, 2009
20 years after the fall of
the wall in Germany

4. Exercise 2
Do you know in which country the following freemail
service has around 38 million users according to their
company website?
www.hanmail.net
No? This is not a problem, neither do we.

5. www.hanmail.net
North Korea - Chosŏn
South Korea - Hanguk

6. Cultural knowledge
Knowledge about your own culture or about foreign
cultures helps us to process and to structure texts,
illustrations and informations.
If you lack a particular piece of knowledge, it will be
difficult, perhaps impossible to interpret perceived
illustrations correctly.
Cultural knowledge and informations are omnipresent -
naturally they‘re also on the web.

7. Image: Intercultural Communication www.araiza.de

8. Culture
...behaviour patterns, ethical principles, traditions,
norms and values which are passed on to others,
practised and represented by members of a particular
culture.
Intercultural communication
...a social interaction between people who are
belonging to at least two different cultures.
Sources: Myron W. Lustig & Jolene Koester, EFQM / Ministry of the interior NRW, Wikipedia

9. Image: Business Spotlight 6/2009 www.business-spotlight.de

10. Different
organisational cultures.
We haven‘t managed any projects for a company from
South Korea yet. Nevertheless we experience a lot of
intercultural communication everyday.
In every organisation or company, there are different
approaches to project organisation and communication.

11. Our customers

12. Different
As information architects and multimedia service
provider, we are developping intranet- and internet-
solutions for various industries and markets.
User Experience.
The term ,User Experience‘ is frequently associated to
the end product. We would like to enlarge its
signification to the user-oriented creation process of a
design or an interaction concept.

13. Ponton User Experience
Requirements
Idea
Concept
Design
Programming
Usage - Experience

14. Factors of success in a project
Confidence
Course - time
Course - work package, instruments
(Requirements idea prototype test new requirements
idea design Construction)
Comprehension
Inspired by: Leah Buley, Adaptive Path, USA

15. User Experience
Building up confidence

16. Exercise 3
How would you illustrate confidence, competence and
quality on your website?
* High-class illustration of products
* High-class illustration of the company‘s leadership
* Slogan, which accentuates product quality and benefits
* Slogan, which accentuates company values and visions
Please have a look at the following two examples.

20. www.daum.net
"an honest and transparent company"
"bringing joyful changes to the world“
www.apple.com
The new iMac.
“The fastest iPhone ever.“
“The best phone for business just got better.“

21. User Experience
timeline and content of
project

22. Course of project - every customer has
his or her own imagination of
participation.
“I would like to be actively involved in working
processes.“
“Go ahead - I trust you.“
“I have already put together a few
workflow diagrams.“
“I‘m happy if you take over the creative
part.“

23. Course of project
Specialised cultures Common
and point of views project context
Goals Conditions
Application of various
Instruments
Chances & risks

24. Concepts
Interaction design Web-based
Software
Coordination and
Web 2.0
Information support important
working processes
Documentation

26. User Experience
„Comprehension“
Project communication

27. “You cannot not
communicate.“
(Paul Watzlawik)

28. Not 20% , but nearly
80%
of communication is nonverbal.
Sources: Michael Argyle, Albert Mehrabian, Wikipedia

29. CMC
Computer mediated communication
Channel reduction

31. “Since using Twitter I always know
what my customer is thinking about.“
“Since we‘ve got the video conference
system, the travel costs of our
internationally operating company
dropped by 50%.“

33. In a video conference you often
can‘t clearly recognize nonverbal
and acoustic signals.
Nevertheless these are often the
keys for the right comprehension
of a person, not only in
intercultural conversations.

34. For a
positive communication experience
Carefully choose and apply your
communication instruments
Who – What – Why – How – Where - When

35. Contact
Ponton-Lab GmbH
Wiebke Müller
wiebke.mueller@ponton-lab.de
Goseriede 4
30159 Hannover
Web: www.ponton-lab.de
Tel.: 0511 / 897009-0