: Culture, Gender, and Age Comparisons Dianne Cyr Simon Fraser University cyr@sfu.ca Milena Head McMaster University headm@mcmaster.ca Alex Ivanov Simon Fraser University ivanov@sfu.ca ABSTRACT Anytime/anywhere services offered through mobile commerce hold great potential to serve customers in wireless environments. However, there is limited understanding of how to best tailor mobile interaction and design for individual differences. This paper seeks to explore the influence of individual differences (namely culture, gender and age) on the design (namely information design, navigation design and visual design) and satisfaction of mobile devices. Sixty subjects who differ on cultural, gender and age dimensions were tested in a controlled laboratory experiment on a mobile product, an Internet enabled phone. The results of this exploratory analysis were inconclusive in terms of cultural and gender differences, but significant differences were found between older and younger subject groups. Consistent with findings in the stationary Internet domain, design elements were found to impact satisfaction with mobile services. Implications and limitations of this research are presented, emphasizing the importance of additional investigations. Keywords Mobile services, design, culture, gender, age INTRODUCTION Mobile commerce (or m-commerce) has huge potential to serve customers in wireless environments. The adoption of m-commerce is dependent on consumer acceptance of new and well-designed technologies. While there is little investigation into screen design of a mobile device, it is expected design characteristics may influence user attitudes towards the device. To explore the impact of individual differences on the design and satisfaction of mobile devices, users who differ on cultural, gender and age dimensions were tested on a mobile product, an Internet enabled cellular phone. Between-group comparisons are conducted with respect to screen design (including information design, navigation design, and visual design), and satisfaction with the mobile device. In an exploration of these topics, the paper provides a review of relevant literature leading to propositions for testing, the methodology used, an elaboration of results, and discussion of the findings. Given the increased diversity of mobile users, developing an expanded understanding of user preferences not only has theoretical importance, but also serves to enhance the reengineering of devices to best meet consumer requirements. MOBILITY AND DESIGN Garret (2003) suggests six classifications for website user experience. Three classifications (from Garret) as outlined below frame the design questions used in the survey for the current investigation. These categories were selected as they are also represented in other recent work in this field. (Agarwal and Venkatesh, 2002; Flavián, Guinalíu and Gurrea, 2005; Palmer, 2002). They include: a) Information Design Elements of the site that convey accurate or inaccurate information to a user. For instance, the location of an icon on the screen would be the domain of information architecture, but whether or not that icon conveys the right information to a user is the domain of information design. b) Navigation Design The navigational scheme used to help or hinder users as they access different sections of the site. c) Visual Design - Elements that deal with the balance, emotional appeal, aesthetics, and uniformity of the website overall graphical look. This includes colors, photographs, shapes, or font type. In this research, design elements such as information design, navigation design, and visual design are considered in the specific context of a mobile device. Specific propositions for testing are presented in the following subsections. Culture and Design Context is one of the most commonly cited cultural dimensions that has been affirmed by many researchers for its validity and usefulness (Choi, Lee, Kim and Jeon, 2005; de Mooij, 2003). According to Hall and Hall (1990), high context or low context refers to the amount of information that is in a given communication as a function of the context in which it occurs. In a high context culture, information is part of a contextual understanding and is implicit, while in low context cultures information is conveyed explicitly. Researchers have demonstrated that differences exist between cultures concerning Web interface acceptance and preferences for design features. Cyr and Trevor Smith (2004) examined design elements for 30 municipal
websites in each of Germany, Japan, and the United States. Significant modal differences across countries were found for use of symbols and graphics, color preferences, site features, language, and content. Sun (2001) found that users from low context cultures such as Germany would prefer a logical and structured Web page layout. Further, users from high context cultures such as China or Japan are expected to have a strong preference for visuals. This work suggests menu placement of other layout characteristics may differ across cultures. In the current investigation, users are tested who are both Canadian (low context) and Chinese (high context) in cultural orientation. Drawing on Sun s work, we might therefore expect Canadians to prefer information design and navigation characteristics of the mobile sites, while Chinese prefer visual design. Proposition 1: There will be differences between Chinese and Canadian users in perception of information design, navigation design, and visual design of a mobile device. Gender and Design Gender is frequently used as a basis for segmentation and researchers have attempted to understand the fundamental similarities and differences between the men and women for decades (Putrevu, 2001). Within the context of design, Simon (2001) tests users perceptions of a site, which refer to information richness, communication effectiveness, and communication interface. Women were found to have a less satisfied perception of the websites than men. Other work demonstrates differences between men and women for content and navigation (Maltby, Chudry and Wedande, 2003), and preference for color or graphics (Rodgers and Harris, 2003). In a study of website design, Cyr and Bonanni (forthcoming) found specific information design elements (such as site organization and presentation of product information) were perceived more favorably by men than women. Further, men found the sites easier to navigate, and liked certain visual design aspects such as degree of interaction and animations more than women. These findings on a stationary website will be explored in a mobile context. Proposition 2: There will be differences between men and women in perception of information design, navigation design, and visual design of a mobile device. Age and Design Age is another common dimension used to segment consumer and user groups. In a report on mobile use in India (MACRO, 2004), limited adoption of mobile devices among older users results from small buttons on the handset and tiny screens that impede user visibility. In addition, there is lack of peer pressure in the older group to use mobile devices. Further, it would be interesting to determine how various characteristics of design (such information design, navigation design, and visual design) may differ for older or younger users. In order to develop some understanding in this area, the following proposition is offered. Proposition 3: There will be differences between older and younger users in perception of information design, navigation design, and visual design of a mobile device. Design and Satisfaction Customer satisfaction has typically been studied in physical environments. In contrast, website satisfaction relates to stickiness and the sum of all the website qualities that induce visitors to remain at the website rather than move to another site (Holland and Baker, 2001, p. 37). According to Anderson and Srinivasan (2003), e-satisfaction is defined as the contentment of the customer with respect to his or her prior purchasing experience with a given electronic firm. A positive navigation experience and perception of a well-designed site may result in online consumer satisfaction (Agarwal and Venkatesh, 2002) and sales (Loshe and Spiller, 1999). Yoon (2002) found navigation functionality resulted in satisfaction, and induced Web visitors to remain at the site. While design research is limited within the mobile context, Jiang and Benbasat (2003) found that mobile interface features can positively influence users attitudes in product presentations. As such, the following is proposed: Proposition 4: Perception of design (information design, navigation design, and visual design) of a mobile device will impact user perceived satisfaction with the mobile device. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Participants Data collection occurred in a large Canadian city in Western Canada. To participate, individuals must have used a cell phone for at least one year. Sixty participants were recruited who were either Chinese or Canadian in origin (30 in each category). In addition, participants were categorized by gender and age. Consistent with Aarnio et al. (2002), younger participants were 34 and younger and older participants were 35 or older. Experimental Site and Device Given the emphasis on aesthetics in usability, an attractive site was required, without interference from a slow or faulty live Internet connection. Most WAP sites in North America and Europe are primarily text-based, however the Lonely Planet offered some visual treatment (www.lonelyplanet.com with access from a mobile phone at wap.lonelyplanet.com). Therefore the City Guide version of this site was chosen for the experiment and further enhanced. Compared to a typical WAP site with a monochromatic or black and white pure text layout, the site for this study featured a colored background and text cells, as well as photographs, maps and icons, among other features. Each version of the site was created in both
English and Chinese. For the Chinese version, site contents were translated to Chinese, back-translated from Chinese to English, and then this version was compared with the original English version to verify content equivalence. Testing occurred on a Nokia 6600 Internet enabled cell phone that had not yet been released to the Canadian market. This phone was considered very suitable to the aims of the investigation as it has one of the largest screens on the market and has a superior color display (65,536 TFT) capable of laptop quality images. The joystick permitted easy navigation. Experimental Tasks Each participant went through the experiment individually, under the supervision of a research investigator. For Chinese participants, all documents were translated and back translated, and a translator was available as required. The session began with a brief introduction and completion of a background data sheet, followed by familiarization with the Nokia 6600 device including a written summary of key functions. The device was then handed to the participant with the browser opened at the introductory page of the site. The site listing for San Francisco featured four restaurants, and most participants took between five to fifteen minutes to complete the task. Both survey and interview methodologies were used, where the survey instrument demonstrated satisfactory validity and reliability. At the end of the experiment, participants were debriefed and received a $20 honorarium for their time. RESULTS T-test of differences between culture, gender, and age group means for design and satisfaction are shown in Tables 1, 2 and 3 respectively. We were surprised to find the only significant difference appeared in the age grouping. The older subject group (35 or older) found the visual design of the mobile device to be significantly more appealing than the younger subject group (under the age of 35). Therefore propositions 1 and 2 were not supported, but there was some support for proposition 3. ID 0.433.667 ND 0.688.507 VD -0.176.861 SAT -1.279.206 Table 1. T-Test of Differences Between Culture Group Means for Design and Satisfaction ID -0.698.488 ND -0.076.939 VD -0.685.497 SAT -0.576.567 Table 2. T-Test of Differences Between Gender Group Means for Design and Satisfaction ID -0.277.784 ND -0.626.534 VD -2.274.027** SAT -1.501.139 Table 3. T-Test of Differences Between Age Group Means for Design and Satisfaction Regression analysis was performed to assess the determinants of satisfaction. Refer to Table 4. Gender and culture categorization was straightforward, where dummy variables represented males/females and Canadian/Chinese participants. Age was also coded as a dichotomous variable for clarity in presentation (Morris, Venkatesh and Ackerman, 2005). Participants that were less than 35 years of age were categorized as younger, while those 35 or older were placed in the older category (as per Aarnio et al., 2002). Morris et al. (2005) suggest that gender differences in technology perceptions become more pronounced among older workers. They suggest the interplay between key demographic variables should be examined in addition to investigating demographics in isolation. This notion is supported by others in the information systems field (Venkatesh et al., 2000) as well as the field of psychology (Nosek, Banaji and Greenwalk, 2002). Therefore, our regression analysis in Table 4 also examines various combinations of threeway and four-way interactions with other demographic variables (e.g., visual design X gender X age). The results of the regression analysis in Table 4 supports proposition 4, that design elements do impact satisfaction with mobile services. Visual design is shown to significantly impact satisfaction (p <.01) and information design has a moderate effect (p <.1). However, our results do not show navigation design significantly influencing satisfaction in a mobile services domain. The only interaction effect shown to have a potential impact on satisfaction is information design X age X culture. With increasing age, the satisfaction of Chinese participants was influenced by the information design of the mobile interface. R 2?R 2 ß Sig. GENDER.063.013.174.551 AGE.415.171.322.270
ID.422.391.22.097* ND.23.118 VD.42.002*** ID x GENDER..031 -.021 -.120.583 ND x GENDER.192.432 VD x GENDER -.025.924 ID x AGE.175.130.061.532 ND x AGE -.111.343 VD x AGE.180.122 ID x.071.022.306.258 ND x -.105.663 VD x -.104.738 ID x GENDER x AGE.018 -.035 -.005.602 ND x GENER x AGE.077.654 VD x GENDER x AGE.011.948 ID x GENDER x ND x GENDER x VD x GENDER x.012 -.041.086.848.181.546 -.261.573 ID x AGE x.131.084.361.051* ND x AGE x -.091.636 VD x AGE x -.190.448 ID x AGE x GENDER x ND x AGE x GENDER x VD x AGE x GENDER x.013 -.040.166.580.116.661 -.263.452 Notes: ID=Information Design; ND=Navigation Design; VD=Visual Design, * p <.1; ** p <.05; *** p <.01 Table 4. Predicting Satisfaction DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS For mobile devices, the evidence of individual difference impact on design and satisfaction perceptions has been preliminary, scattered and incomplete. This paper sought to explore the influence of individual differences (namely culture, gender and age) on the design (namely information design, navigation design and visual design) and satisfaction of mobile devices. Our exploratory analysis revealed that culture and gender did not appear to impact perceptions of mobile design and satisfaction. In examining the interview transcripts, most subjects, regardless of culture/gender/age felt the content was sufficient but rather limited. Explicit comparisons were made to PC-based websites that provide richer content and descriptions. Similarly, almost all subjects found the mobile interface easy to use and navigate. The sites were not deep, were laid out in a logical way and the joystick was easy to master. However, the older subject group (35 or older) found the visual design of the mobile device to be significantly more appealing than the younger subject group (under the age of 35). One participant from the older group commented that it s always a challenge to look at something smaller than the large screen But it was good. You could see clearly. The older subjects seemed to be more impressed with the novelty of the device and its visual design than the younger group. This is evidenced through the following transcript of an older subject: The newness of it, it s captivating. Being efficient is fun sometime. Not having to wade through a whole bunch of stuff. Look at this, look at what it can do, you can do it really easily, and you can get the information before everybody else does. In contrast, a younger subject stated it s a lot nicer to look around when you walk on the street, even if it s the same old street, than be staring at the phone, while another commented that the mobile service was a bit excessive, because the telephone book could do the same thing. And it s also nice to ask people on the street. It was not surprising to discover that design elements do impact satisfaction with mobile services. This finding is consistent with those in the stationary Internet domain. This research supports the assertion that, regardless of technology or device, to the end-user, the interface is often considered the most important component of the entire system (Head and Hassanein, 2002). The user is often not concerned with the underlying operations of the system. In fact, in the eyes of the user, the interface is the system. Therefore, the design of the interface plays an important role in the attitude towards, and success of, any system (Bidgoli, 1990). While our results were inconclusive in terms of cultural and gender differences, we caution the reader that further investigation is necessary. This was an initial exploratory study with a limited sample size, representing only two cultures and using one mobile service application. Although the subjects appeared to be representative of the desired cultural groups, they may not fully represent the socio-economic group within their country. It is recommended that follow-up studies draw samples from the mainstream populations in their native environments. It is also important to note that only one mobile application (restaurant selection) and only one WAP site (lonelyplanet.com) was used in this experiment. The site offered some visual treatment, but had a narrow structure and simple layout. A more complex site with a deeper hierarchy may have revealed more pronounced differences across culture and gender groups. Future research should consider multiple designs across multiple mobile applications. This research is an important first step in understanding the impact of individual differences on the design and satisfaction of mobile services. This is a fruitful area of research where additional investigations should be conducted. It is important to note that the analysis of culture, gender and age on technology use and satisfaction must be undertaken with the understanding that these relationships are dynamic and subject to continuous
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