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THE ROLE OF CULTURE IN THE STRUCTURE

OF CATEGORIES OF APPLICATION

BETWEEN DENMARK AND CHINA

By

Ather Nawaz

Supervisor:

Professor Robert Ramberg

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Contents•Research Goal

•Cultural differences in category formation-The proposition

•Research Methodology-Material-Experiment of card sorting- Probe sort-Tool for analysis

•Analysis techniques-Edit distance-probesort-Neighborhood

•Result of Experimental Session- Edit distance of Universal card sort 1, 2, 3-Edit distance from prespective probe sorts-Comparison of Universal sort and local sort

•Summary•Practical importance

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Research Goal

‘‘To investigate people’s information structure in Denmark and China and measure the difference in the information structure of categories in Chinese and Danish cultural groups’’

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Cultural differences in category formation

•Western cultures group objects together based on shared object attributes.

•Eastern Culteres group objects together based on shared relationships

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The proposition

Categories form the basis of information architectures in software applications

• Organization of menus in WindowsTM interfaces,

• Links in websites,

• File directories,

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Material

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Experiment for Card sorting

20

Universal

Cads

30Danish Local Cards

30ChineseLocal Cards

Sort 1 Sort 2 Sort 3

Criteria Wedding Wedding Colors

Categories User Defined Categories

Predefined categories +User Defined Categories related to wedding criteria

Predefined categories+

User Defined categories related to criteria of

Colors

Categories Detail User defined categories Flowers, Rings, Hearts, Light, (object-

oriented categories) and

“Two people together” and ” Love” (wedding

theme categories)+

Categories related to wedding theme

Red, Pink, Gold, Blue, Violet, Silver

+categories related to

criteria of Colors

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Analysis Techniques

Edit distanceBased on Distance function or distance metric ( Rudin, 1976), calculate

the distance between two set of points.

‘‘Minimum number of operations need to convert one card into another card ’’(Deibel et al, 2005)

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Analysis Techniques

Sort A Sort B

A1 = {1, 2, 3, 4} B1 = {1, 2, 3 }

A2 = {5, 6,7} B2 = {4, 5, 6}

A3 = {8, 9, 10} B3 = {7, 8, 9}

A4 = { } B4 = { 10 }

Edit Distance

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Edit Distance

Sort A Sort B

A1 = {1, 2, 3, 4}

A2 = {5, 6,7}

A3 = {8, 9, 10}

A 4 = { }

B 1 = {1, 2, 3 }

B2 = {4, 5, 6}

B 3 = {7, 8, 9}

B 4 = { 10 }

Sort A Sort B

A1 = {1, 2, 3, 4 }

A2 = { 5, 6,7}

A3 = {8, 9, 10}

A 4 = { }

B 1 = {1, 2, 3 }

B2 = {4, 5, 6}

B 3 = {7, 8, 9, 10}

B 4 = { 10 }

Sort A Sort B

A1 = {1, 2, 3}

A2 = { 4, 5, 6, 7}

A3 = { 8, 9, 10}

A 4 = { }

B 1 = {1, 2, 3 }

B2 = {4, 5, 6}

B 3 = {7, 8, 9}

B 4 = { 10}

Sort A Sort B

A1 = {1, 2, 3}

A2 = {4, 5, 6}

A3 = {7, 8, 9, 10}

A 4 = { }

B 1 = {1, 2, 3 }

B2 = {4, 5, 6}

B 3 = {7, 8, 9 }

B 4 = { 10}

Original Card Sort 1st Stage

2nd Stage 3rd Stage

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Edit Distance

Sort A = Sort B

Number of Steps taken = 3

Distance, d = 3

Sort A Sort B

A1 = {1, 2, 3}

A2 = {4, 5, 6}

A3 = {7, 8, 9 }

A 4 = { 10 }

B 1 = {1, 2, 3 }

B2 = {4, 5, 6}

B 3 = {7, 8, 9 }

B 4 = { 10}

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Application of Edit Distance

Neighborhoods’’The d-neighborhood of sort S is defined to be set of all sorts with

distance of at most d of S’’

(Deibel et al, 2005)

Probes’’A probe sort is a sort s pecifically constructed by the researcher to

represent a sort criterion of interest’’

(Deibel et al, 2005)

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Tool for analysis of Data

Uwcardsorts

http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/edtech/CardSorts/

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Experiment for Card sorting

20

Universal

Cads

30Danish Local Cards

30ChineseLocal Cards

Sort 1 Sort 2 Sort 3

Criteria Wedding Wedding Colors

Categories User Defined Categories

Predefined categories +User Defined Categories related to wedding criteria

Predefined categories+

User Defined categories related to criteria of

Colors

Categories Detail User defined categories Flowers, Rings, Hearts, Light, (object-

oriented categories) and

“Two people together” and ” Love” (wedding

theme categories)+

Categories related to wedding theme

Red, Pink, Gold, Blue, Violet, Silver

+categories related to

criteria of Colors

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Results

Edit Distance of Universal sort 1

Edit Distance of Universal Sort 1

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

1 6 11 16 21 26 31 36 41

Combination of 10 sorts without repetition

Dis

tan

ce

Danish User Defined Sort Chinese User Defined Sort

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Edit Distance of Universal sort 2

• On average Danish subjects put 19% cards into thematic categories and Chinese put 38% cards into Thematic categories

Edit Distance Universal Sort 2

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

1 6 11 16 21 26 31 36 41

Combination of 10 sorts without repetition

Dis

tan

ce

Danish Universal Sort 2 Chinese Universal Sort 2

02468

101214161820

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Chinese and Danish Subjects

Nu

mb

er

of

Card

s i

n t

eh

mati

cal

cate

go

ries

Danish Subjects Chinese Subjects

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Edit Distance of Universal sort 3

Edit Distance Universal Sort 3

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

1 6 11 16 21 26 31 36 41

Combination of 10 sorts without repetition

Dis

tan

ce

Danish Universal Sort 3 Chinese Universal Sort 3

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Edit Distance of Universal sort 1 from its Probe sort

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Edit Distance of Universal sort 2 from its Probe sort

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Edit Distance of Universal sort 3 from its Probe sort

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A comparison of Edit distances between Universal and Local sorts

Edit distance of Universal sorts

Criteria User-defined sorts Wedding Wedding colors

CountryDanish sort 1

Chinese sort 1

Danish sort 2

Chinese sort 2

Danish sort 3

Chinesesort 3

Average 3.27 5.38 4.2 4.27 6.44 8.78

Maximum 6 10 10 8 13 13

Minimum 0 1 1 1 2 3

Distance 16% 27% 21% 21% 32% 44%

Criteria User-defined sorts Wedding Wedding colors

CountryDanishsort 1

Chinesesort 1

Danishsort 2

Chinesesort 2

Danishsort 3

Chinesesort 3

Average 12.4 12.42 9.87 14.33 11.84 12.07

Maximum 20 19 15 21 17 18

Minimum 4 6 4 8 9 5

Distance 41% 41% 33% 48% 39% 40%

Edit distance of Local sorts

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Summary

• More Variability in Chinese subjects as compare to Danish subjects

• Greater use of "other“ category in Chinese users

• More chinese used holistic categories as compare to danish users.

• Chinese subjects take holistic view of category and puts more object in one category.

• Method of usability testing, which involve less number of subjects, can be used to test usability of information.

• Foreground color of data and information is important for Danish subjects.

• Usability of colors in information structure largely depends on target audience preference because Chinese subjects identified red color more than Danish subjects

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Practical Importance of this study and similar work

• For designers

Going to design for two countries

• Usability testers Testing internationally in different countries

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