Cultural Determinants of Search Behaviour on Websites

Cultural Determinants of Search Behaviour on Websites Anett Kralisch & Bettina Berendt Institute of Information Systems Humboldt University Berlin, Germany http://www.wiwi.hu-berlin.de/{~kralisch,~berendt}

Motivation personal and situational variables ease of finding information use of Internet as information source 2

Motivation personal and situational variables ease of finding information use of Internet as information source How does culture affect information seeking behaviour? previous research on culture on attitudinal variables & user-interface design here: research concerning behavioural variables 3

Agenda 1. Cultural Dimensions and Hypotheses 2. Method and Data 3. Results 4. Discussion and Outlook 4

Agenda 1. Cultural Dimensions and Hypotheses 2. Method and Data 3. Results 4. Discussion and Outlook 5

6 Source: Marcus et al. 2001

7 Source: Marcus et al. 2001

Cultural Dimensions Hofstede: Hall: Power Distance Collectivism Uncertainty Avoidance Long-Term Orientation Feminity vs. Masculinity Monochronic vs. Polychronic Context specificity...... other authors... more dimensions 8

Cultural Dimensions Hofstede: Hall: Power Distance Collectivism Uncertainty Avoidance Long-Term Orientation Feminity vs. Masculinity Monochronic vs. Polychronic Context specificity... How people deal with: INFO TIME SPACE... and other authors... and more dimensions 9

Example: TIME perception Long-Term Orientation (Hofstede) Short-Term Orientation focussed on past and present (e.g. Canada,Germany) Long-Term Orientation focussed on future rewards (e.g. China, Japan) Influence on user-interface/web design (e.g., Marcus et al. 2001): desire for immediate results and the achievement of goals Clean functional design patience in achieving results and goals Complex design requires more patience 10

Search Preferences Search option Characteristics Presumably preferred by Search engine Alphabetically organized links little context fast information access no hierarchies large hierarchies Lowcontext Low Uncertainty Avoidance Short-Term oriented Low Power Distance High Power Distance Content-organized links highest amount of (context) information more time-consuming information access large hierarchies High context High Uncertainty Avoidance Long-Term oriented High Power Distance 11

Search Preferences Search option Characteristics Presumably preferred by Search engine Alphabetically organized links little context fast information access no hierarchies large hierarchies Lowcontext Low Uncertainty Avoidance Short-Term oriented Low Power Distance High Power Distance Contentorganized links highest amount of (context) information more time-consuming more time-consuming information access iiiinformationinformation access large hierarchies High context High Uncertainty Avoidance Long-Term Long-Term oriented oriented High Power Distance 12

Agenda 1. Cultural Dimensions and Hypotheses 2. Method and Data 3. Results 4. Discussion and Outlook 13

Method & Data LOGFILE ANALYSIS of a website s user access data recorded between 11/2001 and 11/2002 The website: public health Multilingual: German, English, Spanish, Portuguese Search options: search engine, alphabetical links, content links The users: 277,809 user sessions 3,928,235 page requests 188 countries, 9,971 cities 14

Log data processing Webserver log 200.x4.xx.xx - - [09/Apr/2002:22:28:35 +0200] "GET /cgi-bin/ivw/cp/doia/image. asp. ivw?zugr=d&lang=e&cd=14&nr=87&diagnr=757370 HTTP/1.0" 200 735 "http://www.dermis.net/doia/image.asp?zugr=d&lang=e&cd=14&nr=87&diagnr=757370" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; Windows 98; DigExt)" 200.x4.xx.xx IP address doia/ &diagnr=757370 requested page (also: search modus) etc. IP address Localization Culture IP_ADDRE COUNTRY CITY LATITUDE LONGITUD TIMEZONE CERTAINT 8x.7x.6x.xxx Albania Tirane 41.3330 19.8330 +01:00 90 1x3.1x4.xx.xxx Algeria Algiers 36.7630 3.0510 +01:00 80 15

Agenda 1. Cultural Dimensions and Hypotheses 2. Method and Data 3. Results 4. Discussion and Outlook 16

Results: SUMMARY SEARCH ENGINE CONTENT- ORGANIZED LINKS Our Hypothesis L L L L H H H H 1. Whichsearchoptionswere used? UA CONT LTO PD UA CONT LTO PD H L L L L H H H 2. In which combination? H L L L L H H H 3. In which order? H L H H 4. Number of page requests prior to access? H H H H 5. Frequency of use? H L L H 6. Relative frequency of use? L H H H : expected results : unexpected results : difference between the groups is not significant 17

Results: SUMMARY SEARCH ENGINE CONTENT- ORGANIZED LINKS UA CONT LTO PD UA CONT LTO PD Our Hypothesis L L L L H H H H 1. Whichsearchoptionswere H L L L H H H used? L preferred preferredby by LOW 2. In which combination? H L L L L LOWLTO H LTO users HusersH expected 3. In which order? expectedresult H L H H 4. Number of page requests prior to access? H H H H 5. Frequency of use? H L L H 6. Relative frequency of use? L H H H : expected results : unexpected results : difference between the groups is not significant 18

Results: SUMMARY SEARCH ENGINE CONTENT- ORGANIZED LINKS Our Hypothesis L L L L H H H H 1. Whichsearchoptionswere used? UA CONT LTO PD UA CONT LTO PD H L L L L H H H 2. In which combination? H L L L L H H H 3. In which order? H L H H 4. Number of page requests prior to access? H H H H 5. Frequency of use? H L L H 6. Relative frequency of use? L H H H : expected results : unexpected results : difference between the groups is not significant 19

Agenda 1. Cultural Dimensions and Hypotheses 2. Method and Data 3. Results 4. Discussion and Outlook 20

Most Hypotheses were confirmed. (with the exception of Uncertainty Avoidance Dimension) CULTURE Context Specificity Long-Term Orientation Power Distance PERCEPTION/ PREFERENCES OF INFO TIME SPACE CHOICE & USE OF SEARCH MODI High: Content Links Low: Search engine High: Content Links Low: Search engine High: Content Links Low: Search engine 21

Lessons learned Cultural background 1. interface design (e.g. Marcus et al. 2000) 2. behavioural variables users favour different search modi Culturally adapted website design should take this into account, e.g. through highlighting certain search options determing the amount of links offered Etc. 22

Future Research Does the use of the preferred search option also enhance the user s navigational performance? 23

Future Research Does the use of the preferred search option also enhance the user s navigational performance? To which extent do culturally adapted search tools increase the user s satisfaction? 24

Future Research Does the use of the preferred search option also enhance the user s navigational performance? To which extent do culturally adapted search tools increase the user s satisfaction? Is a new notion of culture needed in the field of HCI? (including e.g. the profession/topic knowledge, native tongue, etc.) 25

Future Research Does the use of the preferred search option also enhance the user s navigational performance? To which extent do culturally adapted search tools increase the user s satisfaction? Is a new notion of culture needed in the field of HCI? (including e.g. the profession/topic knowledge, native tongue, etc.) Limited validity of logfile analysis? complementary research methods required laboratory experiments/observation questionnaires 26

Future Research Does the use of the preferred search option also enhance the user s navigational performance? To which extent do culturally adapted search tools increase the user s satisfaction? Do we need in the field of HCI a new notion of culture? (including e.g. the profession/topic knowledge, native tongue, etc.) Limited validity of logfile analysis: complementary research methods required laboratory experiment/observation questionnaires 27

Thank you for your attention! kralisch@wiwi.hu-berlin.de